World AIDS campaign urges G8 to honor promises

The World AIDS Campaign (WAC) called on G8 governments Thursday to help save millions of lives by honoring commitments they made in signing the United Nations global AIDS compact three years ago.

The WAC urged leaders of the Group of Eight nations to "provide the practical, financial and political support necessary to increase prevention, care and treatment to tackle the HIV pandemic."

"It's easy to make promises but it's much harder to keep them," said Marcel van Soest, WAC's director.

"In 2003, the G8 governments promised to fulfil their shared obligations to deliver on the commitments they agreed to in the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS in 2001. Yet in 2004, AIDS is not even on the G8 agenda. If anything, we are moving backwards."

The G8 comprises the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia. Its national leaders are meeting this week in Sea Island, a resort on the Georgia coast in the southern United States.

In a call for action due to be presented at the summit, the World AIDS Campaign urged governments to ensure integrated approaches to HIV and AIDS programs and intensify support for research and development into effective and safe medicines.

It also asked governments to increase their funding for overseas development assistance aimed at reducing poverty - a key factor in the spread of HIV across the world.

"Twenty years after the discovery of [HIV], the need to bring this devastating epidemic in the developing world under control has never been greater," said van Soest.

"With 40 million people infected worldwide, 5 million new infections and 3 million HIV-related deaths last year, we cannot wait any longer."