Fighting against AIDS brings presidents and paupers together

• Source: Global Times
• [22:41 July 19 2010]
• Comments

We will be discussing touchy issues such as how to keep up funding for public health at a time of an unprecedented economic crisis? What innovative financial mechanisms can we create to make up for the shortfall? And, most importantly, how do we make sure that in the time being we protect the lives of two million people each year?

In a couple of hours time, Vienna will be transformed by a human rights march being led by British singer, Annie Lennox. The newest UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador speaks so informatively and passion-ately about mother-to-child transmission.

Her call is for world governments to take responsibility for AIDS which is now the number one killer of women of reproductive age.

One interviwer asked Lennox why she was so involved in the global response. She replied simply that as both a mother and a daughter, she can identify with an epidemic that has claimed the lives of so many women.

Meanwhile, French First Lady Carla Bruni says she is touched because of her broth-er, Virginio, who died from AIDS four years ago.

There's always going to be criticism that the millions of dollars it takes to stage a conference of this magnitude and calibre is instead better spent on treatment and prevention. But where else would you find a president, a princess and a person living with HIV all under the same roof and for exactly the same purpose?

AIDS may be forgotten in parts of the world and, in others, known only as the disease of the dying.

However, it is perhaps the greatest unifying force of this century and one that has the ability to bring us together in a world where we are too often divided.

The author is a CCTV News Presenter and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador. For more, go to www.aids2010.org.