STATEMENT OF PETER PIOT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE JOINT UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) AT THE OPENING SESSION

Chers Amis, Dear Friends, Caros Amigos,
I am honoured to welcome the world’s AIDS experts, leaders and activists to Geneva, the city that is currently my home base.
Two years have passed since the last international conference in Vancouver.
These have been two years of progress, but these have also been two years in which we have seen the AIDS gap widen.

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Let me start with the good news.
On the prevention front, there have been many real achievements.
In a number of places, HIV infection rates finally appear to be slowing down. Not just in industrialized countries, like here in Switzerland, but in developing countries as well. In Brazil, Senegal, Thailand, Uganda, and now in parts of Tanzania, where HIV rates among young women have been cut by more than half as a result of strong prevention programmes.
Prevention does work. The evidence has never been clearer. And, today, we have more options than ever.

New tools… such as the female condom, are now much more widely available to women in developing countries through our negotiation of a public sector pricing deal. Millions are being sold, and used. Women have more choice.

New research…. is helping to reduce the number of children born with HIV. We now know that even a short regimen of antiretrovirals can greatly reduce mother-to-child transmission among women who do not breastfeed. Countries are now turning these findings into action.

New Treatments … for thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS in the industrial world, including highly active antiretroviral therapy which is postponing disease and prolonging life.

New Hope. …. improving care for people with HIV and AIDS in developing countries which two years ago, in Vancouver, seemed an impossible dream. Communities are beginning to set their own standards of care and mobilising the political will to achieve them.

And New Partnerships…. such as those between the public sector and the pharmaceutical industry which have opened the door to drug price negotiation for developing country markets.

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But together with this news of progress, there is news so devastating that few in this room could have predicted or imagined it a decade ago.
In just the last three years, 27 countries have seen their HIV infection rates more than double. In Asia, a doubling of infections has occurred in almost every country. In several countries in Eastern Europe, the increase has been six-fold and more.
Today, in Botswana and Zimbabwe, one out of four adults are infected.
In South Africa, 3 million people are living with HIV. In India, some 4 million.
Last year, AIDS killed as many people as malaria.

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So, notwithstanding our progress, we continue to confront an epidemic which in many parts of the world is wiping out the development gains that so many have worked so hard to achieve over many decades.
And notwithstanding our progress, we must still challenge ourselves to answer anew the questions that have troubled us all since the beginning of this devastating epidemic:

• Why is it, despite our efforts, that care is still grossly inadequate for the majority of people with HIV?

• Why is it, despite our efforts, that basic human rights are still being violated?

• Why is it, despite our efforts, that 16,000 people a day are still getting HIV when the infection is preventable?

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Let us be clear in our message to the world that this epidemic is truly out of control in many countries.
And let us be equally clear, that unlike a decade ago, this epidemic is out of control at the very time when we know what to do. … we know what to do now.
The theme of our conference is "Bridging the Gap". The biggest AIDS gap of all is the gap between what we know we can do today, and what we are actually doing.
It is my hope that this 12^th World Conference will mark the time when the global community commits itself to closing this AIDS gap.

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Now is the time for us to embrace a new realism and a new urgency in our efforts.
Let’s stop waiting … for a perfect strategy that will assure universal access to all drugs in the future. Rather, let us do what we can do to improve access to care today, even as we commit ourselves to do better tomorrow.
Let’s stop waiting… for a perfect candidate vaccine. Rather, let us push ahead with efficacy trials for the best candidates we have today, even as we commit to increase research on better vaccines for tomorrow.
Let’s stop waiting … for a single magic bullet for prevention. Rather, let us commit ourselves to a public health strategy of "combination prevention" -- and press for more vigorous implementation of the full array and mix of prevention approaches that we know are affordable -- and we know will save lives.
And let's stop waiting …. for like-minded partners to find and join us. Rather, let us commit ourselves to find and join them. Provided that we work from a common commitment to protect and promote the human rights of all people, there can be no "litmus test" for membership in our global AIDS movement.
There will of course be differences of views -- some deeply held -- but let us commit to each other that we will not allow these differences to drive us to the lowest common denominator of inaction. Rather, let us seek the common ground on which our movement can build the strategic partnerships with religious organizations, human rights groups, and the corporate sector, which are essential if we are to catch and contain this runaway epidemic.
Finally, let’s stop waiting … for tough political choices to become easy political choices -- because they won't. Whether it be sexual health education for young people, or needle exchange with AIDS education for drug users, let us commit to ourselves and each other that we will have the courage of our convictions to stand with the data and against the politics of division when the lives of our young people hang in the balance.

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Complacency is gaining ground.
But so are we.
We have the tools, now we must build the political will to use them.

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This year’s World AIDS Campaign has helped to turn the world’s attention to our best hope for ending the epidemic. Young people. A force for change.
Today, around half of all those newly infected with HIV are under 25. But like the brave young people who are with us today, youth around the world are beginning to stand up and face down this epidemic.
On every continent, young people have stopped waiting for the experts… and have started informing each other, supporting each other, and protecting each other.
And in the process, they are inspiring us all and demonstrating that this epidemic can be contained.
Each of the young people you are about to meet has their own heroic story to tell. Stories that inspire us with their bravery and their genius. Stories that inspire us to reaffirm our own commitment to doing what we are capable of doing now to contain this epidemic.
We must not only forge partnerships with young people in our AIDS movement, we must seek to learn from them, and to take on their characteristics.
Like them, we must be enthusiastic.
Like them, we must be creative.
Like them, we must be caring and remain optimistic.
Like them, we must be impatient.
And, with them, we must succeed.

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