UN urges 'exceptional response' to AIDS crisis

The United Nations used World AIDS Day yesterday to call for an "exceptional response" to the global crisis as African patients criticised politicians for failing to tackle a disease that kills millions each year.

The UN said that while adult infection rates had dropped in some countries due to increased use of condoms and changes in sexual behaviour, the epidemic continued to grow.

The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has reached its highest level with an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women.

AIDS has killed more than three million people this year.

"The lessons of nearly 25 years into the AIDS epidemic are clear. Investments made in HIV prevention break the cycle of new infections. By making these investments, each and every country can reverse the spread of AIDS," Mr Piot said.

Some Asian countries marked the day by handing out free condoms and holding flag-festooned rallies to promote awareness.

In Africa rage and remorse combined as the continent worst hit by the global crisis remembered its dead.

"Money earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything else but AIDS," fumed Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old AIDS patient in Tanzania who only recently began receiving life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that are widespread in the West.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the worst place for worldwide HIV/AIDS deaths as well as for new infections - cutting life expectancy in many countries, leaving millions of children orphaned and reducing agricultural output.

The latest UN estimates say 26 million of the 40 million people infected with HIV worldwide live in Africa.

President George W. Bush said US efforts were helping 400,000 people get treatment in African countries such as Uganda and Kenya - up from 50,000 two years ago.

"These countries, and many others, are fighting for the lives of their citizens, and America is now their strongest partner in that fight," he said.

In 2003 Mr Bush pledged $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. But critics including senior UN officials say his emphasis on abstinence-only programmes has hobbled efforts by playing down the role of condoms.

The Roman Catholic Church's ban on condoms, fiercely attacked by many health workers, went unmentioned when Pope Benedict said abstinence and marital fidelity were helping combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in parts of Africa.

Politicians say taboos need to be broken to tackle AIDS.

In France, President Jacques Chirac said schools should be equipped with condom vending machines and youths should be able to buy a condom for €0.20.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on his people to shed their inhibitions and start talking openly about safe sex. "This, quite obviously, has to change if we are to succeed in creating awareness of the hazards of unsafe sexual practices," he told a gathering of young politicians.

India says it has 5.13 million people with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa.

China's government, worried that the spread of AIDS could damage economic development, was due to launch an awareness campaign to educate millions of migrant workers - farmers who flock to cities in search of higher-paying jobs.

Health Minister Gao Qiang said on Wednesday China aimed to keep the number of people infected by HIV virus to below 1.5 million by 2010, a forecast sharply lower than the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate of 10 million if nothing is done.

The WHO's chief China representative, Henk Bekedam, said China had made some making progress in slowing the rise in infection rates.

"What we have seen over the past three years is that China has taken action, and we do believe that this is now an old figure," he said, referring to the 10 million figure.