Universal access for HIV prevention, care top priority, says UN official

Even in the face of the current global economic turmoil, investing in AIDS responses is crucial to prevent 1.3 million deaths in the next two years, the head of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said today, highlighting how the agency’s top priority is to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

“Universal access means saving lives and restoring dignity to people,” Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, told reporters in Geneva.

It encompasses stopping mothers from dying and babies from being infected with the virus; stopping people living with HIV from dying of tuberculosis; and stopping drug users from becoming infected with HIV, he said.

Universal access also entails curbing legislation that blocks an effective response to AIDS, the official stressed.

Further, it underscores the need to end sexual violence against women and girls and “stopping failing our young people,” he said.

During the financial crisis, “economic adjustments should be made with a human face in mind,” Mr. Sidibé said, underscoring that a mother should not have to choose between receiving treatment and feeding her children.

Resources for responses to AIDS should be viewed as investments, and not expenditures, to avert 2.6 million new HIV infections and to put nearly 7 million people on a course of treatment, he told journalists at his first press conference since taking office as UNAIDS Executive Director.

Mr. Sidibé, a Malian national with more than 20 years of experience with the UN under his belt, was appointed to his position last December by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.