Pakistan tells UN of Strong Commitment to fight AIDS
'Pakistan Times' UN Correspondent

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has told a UN panel of its determination to build a strong foundation on which to mount an effective response to HIV/AIDS so as to protect the people from the deadly infection.

"We have a strong political commitment to eradicate this disease," Heath Minister Nasir Khan said while participating in a roundtable which reviewed progress made in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

The review took place ahead of the High-Level Meeting on AIDS which takes place tonight. A dozen heads of State, more than 100 cabinet ministers and some 1,000 representatives of civil society and the private sector will attend the meeting.

Nasir Khan, who is leading the Pakistan delegation, said that prevention was the key to controlling the epidemic and the Pakistan government was doing everything possible to make the people aware of HIV/AIDS through all available means, including the news media. "We believe that is the most effective strategy."

As regards the treatment, he called on the countries producing anti-AIDS drugs, especially the United States, to work out with their pharmaceutical companies a plan to lower the medicine rates for the benefit of the infected people in the developing countries.

He also proposed setting up regional networks to conduct research and to produce the drugs in an effort to provide widest possible coverage.

Funding needed to be sustainable and predictable in order to make the money work, the Pakistan health minister said.

Nasir Khan also called for coordination among countries in fighting the disease especially as it affects young women, who globally suffer double the infection rates of young men.

Global Aids Declaration

Meanwhile, the UN conference on Aids has agreed a declaration designed to be a global blueprint for tackling the disease.

The draft, due to be adopted by the General Assembly later, commits countries to work towards universal access to Aids care by 2010.

But UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he regretted the document had not been more specific.

One aid agency said omitting references to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug-users rendered them "invisible".

People need to understand what you are saying - you cannot code it for people to interpret it as they want Aditi Sharma, HIV/Aids co-ordinator for ActionAid International, said her organisation was "furious".

"It is incomprehensible how negotiators could come up with such a weak declaration when we needed urgent action to stop 8,500 people dying and 13,500 people frombecoming infected every day," she said.

Annan said that the final declaration had come out better than he had expected but he appealed for a clearer message.

"You need to call a spade a spade," he said.

"In this kind of fight you cannot be wishy-washy. People have to understand what you are saying - you cannot code it in a manner that people can interpret it as they want."●