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Mr Chairman,
During this Special Session, Member States will
agree a strategy to confront HIV/AIDS, based on lessons learnt over
the past two decades. During this Round Table we shall focus on how
best to implement it.
We are clear, now, that we must intensify
all our efforts: agreeing on best practice, moving together, reaching
more people and measuring results. We have no choice but to scale up -
dramatically.
We must enable all people - particularly those who
are young - to take action to avoid HIV infection. We have to focus on
those most vulnerable and empower them - to be able to protect
themselves. Everyone must benefit from the prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of sexually transmitted infections. It means enabling all
young people to access information that does not veil the truth.
It also means enabling all young people to access,
and to be prepared to use, condoms. We know that it is possible to
enable those who are most vulnerable to HIV infection to use condoms.
This calls for a joint effort - by communities, civil society and
private companies - to make condoms available where people need them,
or to convince an infected spouse to protect his family.
We will draw on the evidence we have to help devise
actions that will succeed: working within the cultural traditions and
norms of each society. We will not let taboos or denial become excuses
for inaction and delay.
It is increasingly possible to prevent transmission
of HIV from mother to child. We will do all we can to ensure that
Health Services make this prevention possible, everywhere.
We know that if people affected with HIV can better
access effective care, we have greater potential for preventing
infection. If a HIV diagnosis no longer means death in two or four
years, more people will be prepared to face the reality that they may
be infected. If they know they are positive, and receive care, they
will be more likely to pay attention to the well-being of others and
avoid passing on the infection. The stigma of living with HIV is
reduced, and those affected by the virus are more easily able to talk
openly about how HIV is spread.
This care must become more widely available. This
means simplifying the treatment protocols and encouraging the
development of combination drugs. It means providing drugs to some,
even if we cannot provide it to all. It means gathering experience and
using it to expand care programmes, working through all those who have
the capacity to make services more widely available. It means training
health workers to deal with difficult situations and achieve the best
they can - even if this is not the ideal.
We will strengthen health systems through better
education, better access to drugs and diagnostics and through devising
prevention and care regimes that work in poor settings. We will work
to make blood safe, even in countries which do not have the technology
to ensure it.
Above all, we will measure how we are getting on.
What proportion of those vulnerable to HIV are able to protect
themselves? What proportion of those affected can know their status
and access care?
The challenge is enormous: the gaps between what is
needed and what is available are daunting. At all times we must focus
on every day experiences in real life, and ask one question over and
over again. Will this work for real people in real life? If
not, we have to make sure that it does.
There is no choice. We must apply the evidence and
scale up our efforts so that we can, together, confront the greatest
challenge now faced by our global society.
Thank you. |
