Ahern promises to tackle stigma around Aids

THE Government will launch a national campaign to combat the stigma surrounding people with HIV/Aids later this year.

Sat, 03 Jun, 2006 - 01:00

Paul O’Brien, Political Reporter

The Taoiseach made the announcement when he addressed the United Nations general assembly in New York yesterday.

“If we are to succeed in reversing this epidemic, we must also tackle the stigma and discrimination associated with it,” Mr Ahern said.

“Political leaders have to work to make our societies more open, more caring, more inclusive and non-judgmental.

“We plan to do more to deal with this issue in Ireland. And as a first step, we will have a national campaign to combat stigma and discrimination against people infected with HIV, coinciding with World Aids Day on December 1.”

There was warm applause for Mr Ahern when he made the announcement. He was one of several speakers addressing the assembly on the last day of this week’s high-level meeting on HIV/Aids. The meeting was called to review the progress made by member states on the commitments they made at a UN summit in 2001 to tackle the epidemic.

Mr Ahern told the assembly Ireland had “more than lived up” to its commitments. When he addressed the assembly in 2001, he pledged the Government would spend €30 million a year on the fight against HIV/Aids.

In fact, the Government spent an average of €50m in each of the last five years, and yesterday he pledged to double that figure.

“From this year forward, I pledge that our spending on HIV and other communicable diseases will increase to at least €100m per year,” he said.

Since the 2001 summit, more than 30 million men, women and children had been infected with HIV and more than three million had died from Aids-related diseases, Mr Ahern said.

And HIV did not respect borders, he stressed, pointing out the EU and its neighbours had one of the fastest-growing infection rates in the world.

“The fight against AIDS remains one of the greatest challenges of our generation. We will be judged by the generosity of our response and by the strength of our leadership,” he said.