Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Summarizes Editorials, Opinion Pieces on XV International AIDS Conference
Several newspapers have published editorials and opinion pieces in response to the XV International AIDS Conference held last week in Bangkok, Thailand. Summaries of the articles appear below.
Editorials
Arizona Republic: Although the funding needs for the fight against AIDS are "far from being met," and it is "critical" to accelerate funding, "there's finally a lot of money on the table," a Republic editorial says, adding that the challenge is to use the money effectively. "Coordination is critical," as is improving infrastructure, including training health workers and creating systems for managing supplies and data, the editorial says (Arizona Republic, 7/23).
Bangkok Post: The issue of drug patents may have been the most "contentious" at the conference, and although the "heat might now have cooled," the "fire will burn on as long as the pharmaceutical giants charge so much for patented medicines," a Bangkok Post editorial says. Civil society should therefore "see to it" that Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra "honors his word" to make generic drugs more widely accessible, the editorial concludes (Bangkok Post, 7/23).
Opinion Pieces
Andrew Bolt, Melbourne's Herald Sun: Despite criticisms of U.S. HIV/AIDS policies, the country does "fund safe-sex programs and will distribute cheap generic AIDS drugs, once properly tested," columnist Bolt writes in a Herald Sun opinion piece. In addition, the "ABC" method -- Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms -- implemented by Uganda and the United States "works, yet its appeal to morality revolts AIDS activists," Bolt concludes (Bolt, Herald Sun, 7/23).
H.D.S Greenaway, Boston Globe: Western nations "ignor[e]" colonialism, diseases such as HIV/AIDS, poor leadership and genocide in Africa "at its peril," columnist Greenaway writes in a Globe opinion piece. No "continent is an island entire of itself ... and events that might seem local to Africa will eventually spill over to diminish the world," Greenaway concludes (Greenaway, Boston Globe, 7/23).
Ernest Lefever, Washington Times: Most efforts at combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic have been "devoted to mitigating the suffering" of those with the disease, Lefever, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, writes in a Times opinion piece. Research to develop a cure for the disease must continue, but a "larger portion of the resources in the struggle against AIDS should be devoted to prevention," Lefever concludes (Lefever, Washington Times, 7/23).
Donald MacGillis, Boston Globe: The shortage of health care workers in developing countries -- resulting from the "toll" of HIV/AIDS and the "brain drain" of health professionals to industrialized countries -- could "impede treatment as much or more than lack of AIDS drugs," columnist MacGillis writes in a Globe opinion piece. Developing countries "badly need" health workers and "should be helped by industrialized countries to keep them," MacGillis concludes (MacGillis, Boston Globe, 7/23).
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