HIV/AIDS 2002: The AIDS epidemic is becoming one of the greatest threats to world stability, Mr Peter Piot, the head of the United Nations agency devoted to the ailment said yesterday, calling on the West to increase aid to the developing world.
"There's definitely a case for increasing awareness in the developed countries that the AIDS epidemic, even far away in Africa or in India, is affecting stability in the world," Mr Piot told a London press conference to launch a report on the disease by the UN and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"There is a responsibility of governments and therefore of the public in countries of Western Europe to contribute to the fight against AIDS in developing countries," he said.
Mr Piot, who heads the UNAIDS agency, said the epidemic must be tackled not only because of the moral responsibility "but also because this is becoming one of the greatest threats to stability in the world".
The UN chief said that it would take at least €10 billion a year to combat the disease efficiently, considerably more than the three billion spent at present.
"There's clearly a major resource-gap," Mr Piot said, stressing that the 10 million figure cited was only a "minimum package".
Recognising that there could be no "single simple fix" to the problem, the UNAIDS chief suggested a "multisectoral" approach that aimed to bolster AIDS prevention, improve access to care and provide more help for children who had been orphaned by the disease.
Mr Bernhard Schwartlander, the director of the WHO's AIDS department, called on the companies that make drugs that treat the disease to lower the prices they charge to the developing countries.
"Drugs are still far too expensive although prices have come down already," he said.