Around the globe, leaders, activists and victims used World AIDS Day today to send the message that far stronger action is needed in the battle against the disease that kills millions of people every year.
The United Nation's special envoy for AIDS in Africa proposed big business dedicate a portion of profits to the fight, French President Jacques Chirac suggested schools install condom vending machines and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on people to talk openly about safe sex.
The number of people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has reached its highest level with an estimated 40.3 million people, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women.
"We must do far, far more," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. "It is time to recognize that although our response so far has succeeded in some of the particulars, it has yet to match the epidemic in scale."
Others, including US President George W. Bush, noted what progress has been made. Speaking in Washington, he said US efforts were helping 400,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa get treatment.
With just over 10 per cent of the world's population, sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60 percent of all people infected with HIV. Africa saw about 3.2 million of the almost 5 million new infections recorded in 2005.
"These countries, and many others, are fighting for the lives of their citizens, and America is now their strongest partner in that fight," he said. The 400,000 getting treatment, he said, was up from 50,000 two years ago.
However, critics including senior UN officials say Bush's emphasis on abstinence-only programs has hobbled efforts by playing down the role of condoms.
From Vatican City, Pope Benedict said programs based on promoting abstinence and marital fidelity were seeing success, saying "statistics taken in several regions of Africa confirm the results of policies based on continence, the promotion of faithfulness in marriage and the importance of family life."
But the Pope did not specify the regions or the statistics, and he avoided a specific mention of the Roman Catholic Church's controversial ban on condoms.
"The international response to HIV and AIDS was woefully slow. This is one of the scars on the conscience of our generation," said UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson in remarks prepared for a ceremony in New York.
"We cannot turn back the clock. But we must ensure that, when historians look at the way the world responded to HIV and AIDS, they see that 2006 was the year when the international community finally stepped up to the mark," he said.
"This vast human tragedy is all the more unacceptable because it could have been avoided."