"Here we have an epidemic that is killing millions. What is the response?" Annan said

BANGKOK, July 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United Nations and France on Tuesday, July 13, criticized the United States for doing little to fight AIDS, as protesters disrupted the world AIDS forum with a series of demonstrations demanding cheaper drugs and more money to tackle the pandemic.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, currently attending the International AIDS Conference, called on Washington to show the same commitment to the battle against AIDS as the war on terror, reported Reuters.

"We hear a lot about weapons of mass destruction. We hear a lot about terrorism, and we are worried about weapons of mass destruction because of their potential to kill thousands of people," Annan said in an interview with the BBC.

"Here we have an epidemic that is killing millions. What is the response?" Annan said.

"We really do need leadership. America has the natural leadership capacity because of its resources, because of its size."

"The Global Fund is ready to go," Annan, who is in the Thai capital for the 15th World AIDS Conference, told the BBC.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria began its operations only last year.

"If individual governments begin to set up their own initiatives, they start from scratch, it takes longer, the money that they hold will not be spent for a long time."

Annan hoped the US and the European Union could each contribute one billion dollars a year to the fund.

With money from elsewhere, he said "the fund could have assured and sustained support through the next five years or so.”

US President George W. Bush has pledged 15 billion dollars over five years to fight AIDS, but mainly through bilateral arrangements with countries rather than the Global Fund.

Annan was speaking on the sidelines of the international AIDS conference in Bangkok where Washington 's low-key presence, moral agenda and funding policies on AIDS have come under attack, Reuters said.

Chirac Also Critical

Activists stage a protest, blame Bush’s policies for the growing AIDS crisis

For his part, French President Jacques Chirac made a veiled attack on America at the conference, saying US demands on bilateral trade eroded a vital international deal to provide cheap HIV drugs to developing nations.

Chirac called on countries to implement a multilateral trade accord that lets poor, AIDS-ravaged nations bypass international patent obligations, thus enabling them to buy cheap copycat "generic" drugs without fear of reprisal, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In an address read on his behalf by French Cooperation and Development Minister Xavier Darcos, Chirac said: "Making certain countries drop these measures in the framework of bilateral trade negotiations would be tantamount to blackmail."

The risk, he said, was that countries would be forced to buy expensive patented drugs, leaving innumerable HIV-infected citizens on the sidelines.

"What is the point of starting treatment without any guarantee of having quality and affordable drugs in the long term?" Chirac asked.

US trade deals with Chile , Jordan and Singapore include provisions for beefing up protection for patented, brand-name drugs.

The 2001 pact, reached among the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha , broke the grip of pharmaceutical giants on anti-HIV drugs.

It has helped drive down the cost of frontline treatments from 10,000-12,000 dollars per person per year to as little as 140 dollars.

"Big Pharma" had fought hard against the deal, describing generics makers as counterfeiters whose activities sapped the profit motive that drove innovative lab research.

Protests

In another development, activists halted a speech by the head of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer as tempers flared amid complaints that efforts to tackle the disease were being hampered by a cash crisis.

A group of 30 activists stormed the main debating arena of the conference, as Pfizer chief executive Hank McKinnell prepared to speak.

Carrying banners saying "Patient rights, not patent rights" and chanting "free the people, break the patents", the group halted the meeting.

Activists have criticized the industrialized nations for failing to contribute enough money and blamed Western drug giants for high-priced antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

They have had a dramatic effect in cutting AIDS deaths but are unaffordable in many of the worst-hit developing nations.

A Thai activist was allowed to address the meeting of about 200 people before they left.

"Expensive ARVs prevent access for all," said Boonniem Wongjaikam, of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS. "We need cheap ARVs."

Generic drugs manufacturers have copied patented ARVs and have sold them at low prices.

Activists say it has helped drive down the cost of treatments from up to 12,000 dollars per person two years ago to several hundred dollars.

Leaders in the fight against AIDS have repeatedly used the conference in the Thai capital to call for more money to tackle the crisis that has killed more than 20 million people.

The United Nations has estimated 20 billion dollars will still be needed annually by 2007 because of the growing threat from AIDS which is nearly four times current levels.

But experts involved in trying to achieve the UN's goal of getting anti-HIV drugs to three million needy people by the end of 2005 said money was not the only problem.

They needed to create an army of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and health workers including in some countries where trained staff were dying in droves from AIDS.

The number of children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa will also top 18 million by 2010, the UN and US warned at the conference.

The number of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS will surge by more than 50 percent from the current 12.3 million in the region worst ravaged by the AIDS pandemic, according to a multi-agency report issued here.

"The orphan crisis is arguably the cruelest legacy of this whole pandemic," UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy told reporters.

About 38 million people are currently living with HIV and the UN has warned of an explosion of cases in Asia and Eastern Europe unless immediate action is taken. Nearly five million more infections occurred in 2003, the highest in any single year.