UN AIDS Conference Draws Thousands to New York.

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UN AIDS Conference Draws Thousands to New York.

Sunday June 24 11:37 AM ET:

By Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two decades after the first AIDS (news -

web sites) case was reported, the United Nations (news - web sites) on

Monday opens a high-level conference to combat the disease killing 5

million adults a year and creating a generation of orphans.

The appalling figures are not in dispute for the 3,000 government

leaders, advocacy groups, scientists, businessmen, health experts and

AIDS victims descending on New York for the first three-day special U.N.

General Assembly session on AIDS.

Some 36 million people are infected worldwide with AIDS or HIV (news -

web sites), the virus that causes it, with 25 million in Africa alone. The

killer disease is rapidly spreading through Asia, the Caribbean and

Eastern Europe.

``Everybody has come to this late,'' said , the U.N. AIDS

envoy for Africa. ``The world has been seized and galvanized only over

the last 18 months or so. And in the meantime 17 million people have

died in sub-Sahara Africa.''

There is also no dispute that billions are needed for poor countries to

halt the devastation, which in Africa is wiping out large sectors of a

productive work force.

But few agree on where and how to spend limited resources as they

become available: on basic health services, on AIDS prevention

campaigns or on antiretroviral treatment too.

``Please don't ask any African patient if he wants treatment, and don't

ask him whether he will comply with it,'' said Mugyenyi, director of

the Joint Clinical Research Center in Uganda. ``It is a big, big yes.''

DELEGATES DIVIDED ON SOME ISSUES

Delegates from 180 nations are also divided on a final declaration that

would name homosexuals, prostitutes, prisoners and intravenous drug

users among the most vulnerable groups. Muslim nations argue this

would offend religious beliefs.

And U.N.-organized panels that include activists, major foundations and

businessmen are in jeopardy. Egypt, Libya and Pakistan, among others,

object to the participation of an American gay rights group, prompting

Europeans and Canada to hold back approval of the entire speakers list.

``It's telling that 20 years into this epidemic, we can't even name the

vulnerable groups and do something for them,'' said Joanne Csete, a

public health expert for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Nevertheless, believes progress is being made to ''slowly,

incrementally, painfully turn things around.''

The U.N. Security Council has declared AIDS an impediment to peace

and security, although the 15-member body this week is carrying out its

full schedule, ignoring the conference.

Drug companies have slashed prices. And U.N. Secretary-General Kofi

n (news - web sites) has made the campaign his ''personal

priority'' while African leaders have been galvanized into action,

noted.

``No one says you give up on Northern Ireland, give up on the Middle

East. Everyone does everything within their capacity to intervene when

there are desperate situations,'' he said.

Some two dozen African presidents and prime ministers are among the

180 delegations attending the conference. But South African President

Thabo Mbeki will not come, although he is in Washington this week.

Mbeki caused an world furor last year when he questioned the link

between the HIV virus (news - web sites) and AIDS.

South Africa is among the worst affected nations, with about a fourth of

the population facing an early death and an average life expectancy now

reduced to 35 years.

Officials from the Catholic Medical Mission, which cares for thousands of

AIDS victims and orphans in southern Africa, say Pretoria is fumbling,

even in providing drugs to stop pregnant mothers from passing on HIV

to infants.

``We've heard that the whole plan has been abandoned. So even with

an international conference, things are going backward ,'' Johan Viljoen,

a project manager, said.

Sister Alison Monro also is skeptical about the impact of the conference.

``It may push the debate further but deliberations don't reach the

remotest areas of sub-Sahara Africa, especially if health ministers are

not delivering the goods,'' she said.

Dr. Piot, executive director of UNAIDS (news - web sites), the

coordinator of the U.N. programs, stresses that leadership, especially at

the grass roots level ``will ultimately be the driving force that will

reverse and eventually halt the devastation of this epidemic.''

Uganda, with an early prevention program, has pushed down the HIV

rate in adults from 14 percent to 8 percent over the last decade.

Thailand, the Philippines and Senegal have taken bold steps to combat

the disease. But only Brazil, among developing nations, is providing free

antiretroviral treatment to the poor, cutting the death rate in half.

The biggest challenge, Piot said, is getting money to get the job done.

n has said $7 billion to $10 billion a year is needed. A new study in

the journal Science estimates $9.2 billion is needed, for both prevention

and treatment.

The conference's final declaration calls for a 25 percent reduction in HIV

infections among 15- to 24-year-olds in the most afflicted countries by

2005 and in all nations by 2010. It also calls for 90 percent of young

people to have access to information and care by 2005 and a 20 percent

cut in the number of infants infected with HIV by that date