New drug plan marks World AIDS Day

Salvadorean AIDS sufferer Maria Ayala, 20, lies in bed at the Rosales National Hospital in San Salvador on Sunday. Nearly 25,000 Salvadoreans have contracted HIV, and the Department of Public Health in El Salvador says that last year AIDS was the tenth-largest cause of death in the country. PHOTO: EPA

Millions the globe marked World AIDS Day yesterday as the UN launched a major program to provide anti-retroviral drugs to the poor and India pledged to give AIDS patients the world's cheapest drugs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS in Geneva unveiled their so-called "3 by 5" plan to provide anti-retroviral drugs to 3 million people in developing countries and those in transition by 2005.

WHO General Jong-wook Lee called prevention and treatment of the devastating 22-year-old disease perhaps "the toughest health assignment the world has ever faced."

"The lives of millions of people are at stake. This strategy demands massive and unconventional efforts to make sure they stay alive," he said in introducing the US$5.5 billion program, which aims to give half of the people worldwide in urgent need of treatment a better chance at survival.

The global AIDS epidemic continues its unrelenting march, with UNAIDS figures released last week showing that at least 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV or have AIDS.

Three million people have died this year alone from AIDS.

Five new cases of HIV or AIDS were recorded just this year, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa, though AIDS is fast becoming a major problem in China, India and Russia.

In India -- where more people are infected with HIV than any country except South Africa -- Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told a press conference on Sunday that the government was in negotiations with Indian drug companies to get "rock-bottom drug prices" for AIDS patients.

The minister said she had asked the three Indian companies taking part in former US president Bill Clinton's campaign to slash the cost of AIDS drugs in developing countries to US$0.38 a day.

"I am delighted to announce that after a very fruitful meeting they promised to slash the prices to less than 38 cents for India if the government gave them certain export benefits ... I am sure the deal will go through," she said.

The deal could ensure each Indian patient received a commonly used triple-drug regimen for less than US$0.20 cents a day, compared to the current cost of at least US$1 a day, an industry source said.

Across rest of Asia, a former porn star and a princess were among the celebrities highlighting the AIDS fight amid gloomy predictions that HIV infections in the region are set to rise.

In Japan, outspoken ex-porn star Ai Iijima was to speak at a government-sponsored event at a train station in Shinjuku, the bustling entertainment district of Tokyo, where 15,000 condoms will be handed out.

In China, often criticized for its inaction by AIDS campaigners, representatives of its new generation of leaders were to signal a break from past policies by visiting patients at Beijing's Ditan Hospital.

A display of condom posters at Beijing's Tsinghua University and a students' survey and seminar at Shihezi University in Xinjiang were among a slew of events across the country.

Meanwhile, Thai Princess Ubolratana presided over a Buddhist merit-making ceremony next to the Grand Palace on Sunday as part of a policy to rejuvenate the kingdom's successful 1990s campaign to halt the spread of the virus.

Church charity barbecues and cabarets were being held across Australia, a condom-shaped helium balloon was to be floated above Hong Kong, and public events were being held in Nepal, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Huge concerts driving home the safe-sex message were also scheduled in Tokyo, China and Thailand.

UNAIDS director Peter Piot said that 2003 could prove to be "a swing year" in the long-term battle against AIDS.

He said the year had seen a flowering of political will to roll back the disease, a dramatic cut in the price of anti-retroviral drugs and South Africa's belated launch of a nationwide treatment program.

Best all was the arrival of big bucks. Spending on AIDS rose 50 percent this year, from US$3.1 billion to US$4.7 billion, although it was still only half of what is needed, Piot said.