Access to anti-HIV drugs is the major moral issue facing the developed world into the next century, according to South African High Court judge Justice Edwin Cameron.
Speaking at the Conference of the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine in Perth, the openly HIV-infected judge challenged conference delegates to act on this moral emergency.
"There are drugs available that have greatly slashed deaths from AIDS. Those drugs aren't available to most of the people in the world at risk of dying from AIDS in Africa and resource poor countries," Justice Cameron said. "The unavailability is not because of manufacturing costs – the unavailability is because of drug pricing, by the drug companies, and because of international and trade regimes".
"The AIDS emergency is a moral imperative that we, who live relatively affluent lives, cannot ignore," Justice Cameron said. "30 million people in resource-poor countries face death from AIDS unless these drugs are made available to them."
He called on the conference to demand a restructuring of drug pricing and to pressure the Australian and New Zealand governments to support changes to international trade to facilitate the availability of drugs in resource poor settings.
In response, Associate Professor Martin French from the Royal Perth Hospital said that Australian researchers will be meeting with African colleagues to plan future collaboration.
Professor David Cooper, from St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, pointed out the antiretroviral drugs will come off patent in approximately 10 years. He said that now is the time to build healthcare infrastructure in African countries to ensure that these drugs can be made available when patents run out.