February 25, 2004 DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Fifty-five European and Central Asian nations vowed Tuesday to halt the fast-spreading virus that causes AIDS, agreeing on an ambitious agenda of providing increased and improved treatment and prevention.
Officials pledged to provide "universal access" as early as next year to prevention, treatment and care, including antiretroviral drugs that slow the development of HIV into full-blown AIDS.
"The HIV/AIDS epidemic threatens to become a crisis of unprecedented proportions in our region, undermining public health, development, social cohesion, national security and political stability in many of our countries," their declaration stated.
The United Nations has set a goal of providing 3 million people worldwide -- including 100,000 in Europe and Central Asia -- with antiretroviral drugs by 2010.
The declaration also vowed to eliminate HIV infection among infants by 2010, and called for "early implementation" of a World Trade Organization agreement to bring cheaper generic drugs on the market.
The countries attending the two-day meeting in Dublin did not pledge a specific amount of money.
The meeting ended with pleas for the 15-nation European Union to play a more active role in combatting the HIV/AIDS virus that is spreading through Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Ten new members, most of them Eastern European nations, are joining the bloc in May.
"The European Union, in my view, has a special responsibility," said Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations AIDS organization.
Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country now holds the EU presidency, said the EU must become "the linchpin" in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic together with the United States.
"We should cooperate on the supply of lifesaving drugs to the infected in the poorest countries (and) assume global leadership in the fight against the disease," notably in sub-Saharan Africa, Cowen said.
On Monday, President Bush unveiled a five-year $15 billion emergency plan to combat AIDS, including $9 billion in new funding to accelerate prevention, treatment and care in 14 of the most affected countries, the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa.
Globally, 40 million people are infected with the HIV virus or suffer from full-blown AIDS. In 2002, 2.5 million people died of the disease, 2 million of them in Africa.
United Nations data show Eastern Europe and Central Asia suffering the world's fastest infection rate: as many as 1.8 million people -- up from 30,000 to 40,000 in 1998 -- are infected with HIV.
Worst off are Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia. One in every 100 adults in Russia, Ukraine and Estonia carries HIV, according to the U.N. Development Program.
It reported more than 257,000 HIV cases in Russia in 2003, but experts believe the real number is between 700,000 and 1.5 million.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
