15^th International AIDS Conference centres discussions on Access

The 15^th International AIDS Conference held in Bangkok from 11 to 16 July 2004 gathered more than 17 000 delegates under the theme: "Access for All" centring discussion less on medical issues and more on how to make available not only medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as information on prevention, treatment and care.

Researchers, pharmaceutical companies, UN agencies, NGOs, and groups affected by the AIDS epidemic from over 160 countries tackled the need for all groups, including scientists, community workers and leaders, from all levels, from the field, the public and private sectors, to have access to all resources developed to prevent HIV/AIDS and to treat and care for those infected by this illness. According to UNAIDS, the Joint UN programme to fight HIV/AIDS, only 440 000 of the 6 million people living with HIV/AIDS are receiving medicines for their treatment.

These and other figures can be found in the recently published Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2004, in which the UN programme shows that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has increased from 35 million in 2001 to 38 million in 2003. Of the latter number, 25 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa and 6.5 million live in South and South-east Asia.

In terms of commitments, the European Union announced a pledge of $52M to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation also granted $50 million to the Global Fund during the Conference. However, the need to create public private partnerships to support the Global Fund was also stressed. The World Bank also pledged $1 billion in grants for AIDS prevention, care and mitigation efforts in sub-Saharan Africa, through the Multi-Country AIDS Programme for Africa (MAP).

To visit the official site of the XV International AIDS Conference please click here.

Visit the UNAIDS webpage by clicking here.

Download the Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2004, published by UNAIDS.