We can eradicate AIDS, if politicians are willing

published on July 24, 2012 in Toronto Star

Since the first reported case of AIDS 31 years ago, the disease has killed 30 million people, revolutionized sexual practice and provided a generation with its defining anxiety. Now, if politicians and policymakers do their part, we can eradicate it.

That was the striking consensus at the opening of the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. “There is no excuse scientifically to say we cannot [conquer AIDS],” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, a director at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

A cocktail of antiretroviral drugs used to treat the disease has, for the 8 million people on the medication, changed AIDS from a terminal into a chronic condition and all but eliminated the risk of transmission.

The global statistics are encouraging. AIDS deaths are down 24 per cent from their peak in 2005 and the number of newly affected people has reached its lowest point since 2001. However, it’s estimated that some 7 million people who could benefit from the drug cocktail are too poor to access it; roughly 1 per cent of those afflicted have the disease without even knowing it.

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© Copyright BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's Hospital 608–1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-8477 | Fax: 604-806-9044
General inquiries: info@bccfe.ca
Media inquiries: communications@bccfe.ca
(Please do not use any of these email addresses to send personal information or book an appointment. To book appointments or contact the H2H clinic, please call 604-416-1517 or fax: 604-564-4893. Do not send your or your client's personal information via email.)

Our work serves clients and communities across British Columbia on lands and waters cared for and nurtured by the many distinct First Nations across the province. The BC-CfE humbly and gratefully acknowledge the stewards of these lands, particularly the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) on whose unceded, traditional and ancestral territories our offices are located.