Annan chides world leaders over AIDS

The global fight against AIDS is falling short and leaders need to act as women bear the brunt of the killer disease, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday.

Opening an international AIDS conference, Mr Annan made a passionate plea for the education of girls as a vital means of protecting them from the epidemic in a world where more and more women are catching it from philandering husbands.

He also pleaded for more money to halt the spread of a disease that has killed 20 million people and to treat millions of sufferers.

Asian nations must intensify the fight against AIDS, which is spreading fast in a region home to 60% of the world's population and where one in four new infections occurs, he said.

"We need leaders everywhere to demonstrate that speaking up about AIDS is a point of pride, not a source of shame," he said.

"There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment, no more hiding behind the veil of apathy."

Just before Mr Annan spoke, 1,000 activists staged a sit-down protest outside the sprawling venue on the outskirts of Bangkok, waving placards saying "Access for All Denied" a play on the meeting's "Access for All" slogan. Inside the teeming convention halls, students dressed in giant pink condom suits mingled with delegates. Outside, visitors were entertained by elephants playing soccer in a car park.

Some 38 million people are living with AIDS and 14,000 more get infected every day more than 40% of them aged 15-24.

A cure and vaccines for the disease, which emerged in 1981, are still years away.

"We are not on track to begin reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005, as we had promised," Mr Annan said, referring to the World Health Organisation's plan to treat 3 million people by the end of 2005.

WHO officials say they failed to meet their initial six-month target, but are confident of catching up, although many barriers have to be overcome. Mr Annan said health systems and training of medical workers needed to be expanded to support both treatment and prevention. He was concerned in particular about women, who account for nearly half of all adult infections.

The Bangkok meeting aims to boost access to lifesaving drug cocktails, which can prolong the lives of AIDS sufferers. Despite a dramatic fall in drug prices, mainly due to pressure on Western drug firms, only 440,000 of the six million AIDS patients in need in the poorer countries get treatment. The issue of access to generic anti-retroviral drugs -- which can cost as little as 113 per patient a year in poor nations against 380 for branded products, according to charity ActionAid has overshadowed the runup to the biennial meeting.

So have accusations of complacency in countries, like host Thailand, which have had considerable success in curbing the spread of AIDS with vigorous action.

Thailand's success, particularly in its notorious sex industry in the 1990s, has made it a model.

But experts say infections are on the rise among youths and needle drug users, and they blame the government for cutting spending on AIDS awareness programmes and waging a bloody "war on drugs" that has driven many away from treatment.

Response to AIDS 'a crisis'

- The massive failure of the world to respond to AIDS is a crisis of leadership.

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS.

The epidemic in most parts of Africa has a woman's face. More women are dying and becoming infected than men. Girls drop out of school to care for their dying relatives.

Gcebile Ndlovu, of the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS.

In recent decades, more people have escaped from poverty in Asia and the Pacific than in any other part of the world, and more than in any previous time. These gains have impressed the whole world. You must cherish, and carefully nurture them. Above all, you must not let them be reversed by HIV/AIDS.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Asian governments unfortunately are still burying their head in the sand... the way the South African government did a few years ago.

Zackie Achmad, the head of the Treatment Action Group.

This year America is putting about twice as much money to work in this fight as all of the other donor nations of the world combined and we need every donor nation to step up its commitment.

Randall Tobias, the US special ambassador on AIDS.

In the past customers didn't want to use condoms, but now they know better.

19-year-old Cambodian prostitute Linda.

It's an inflated target that is totally unrealistic.

UNAids conference co-chairman Professor Joep Lange, on the WHO's target of treating three million people by next year known as the Three by Five initiative..