McAleese attacks AIDS drug profiteers

COMPANIES involved in the production of HIV/AIDS drugs are doing their best to make substantial profits from advances made by scientists, President Mary McAleese said yesterday.

Mrs McAleese was speaking to 100 delegates from 37 countries who gathered in Dublin for a UNICEF-organised meeting to discuss the global epidemic, particularly its impact on children.

An estimated 44 million people around the world have contracted HIV/AIDS and a further 25m have so far died from the virus. The vast majority of the deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and 20% of all those who die around the world from HIV/AIDS are children under the age of 15.

Some 14m children have already lost their parents to the disease and UNICEF estimates that at least 25m children will have been orphaned by 2010.

Delegates to the 49th annual meeting of UNICEF's national committees were told that in the time it took Mrs McAleese to make her 15-minute speech, 20 youngsters had contracted the virus and 12 people had died.

"This isn't just a disaster waiting to happen. This is a disaster that we are right in the middle of, with no reassuring end in sight," Mrs McAleese said.

"Scientists do their best to find solutions, commercial interests do their best to make substantial profits from those solutions," she added.

Mrs McAleese was referring to the ongoing global debate over the use of costly HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral treatments. Some countries, notably Brazil, have forced companies to cut the price of their treatments after threatening to licence the use of much cheaper generic drugs.

The US has pledged some $10bn to battling HIV/AIDS in Africa but only those drugs licensed and patented in the US can be used under the programme.

Mrs McAleese said some countries can afford treatment, others cannot.

"Some countries take a responsible approach to public health education and treatment, others pay the problem scant regard in the mistaken hope it will go away," she added.

She said communities and families worldwide have responsibilities. "Candid conversations about AIDS, its causes and its consequences is a help in creating a bulwark of personal behaviour which can help stop the disease in its track," Mrs McAleese said, citing Uganda as an example where an open approach has contributed to a decline in infection levels.

UNICEF called yesterday for a greater response to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. "The biggest challenge of all remains funding," said Maura Quinn, UNICEF Ireland's executive director.

Only 5% of the global HIV/AIDS budget is allocated to children, she said.

"Children must be the priority when dealing with this issue and wealthy nations have a fundamental role in stepping up the response to HIV/AIDS especially the orphan crisis."