Treatment Along With Prevention Crucial To Stopping Spread Of Hiv/Aids, Speaker To UN Panel Says
The false dilemma between prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS had caused unnecessary losses, wasted precious time and
should be avoided in the future, according to a keynote speaker at this week's annual session of the UN Commission on
Population and Development.
In calling for an end to competing strategies aimed at combating the pandemic, Dr. Paulo Roberto Teixeira, Senior
Consultant for the National STD/AIDS Programme in Brazil's Ministry of Health, told a press briefing today that
prevention works, even when it involves groups of people that are difficult to reach.
But the positive impact of anti-retroviral treatment - even in settings characterized by abject poverty - is also real
and could no longer be ignored, he added, stressing the same message he delivered yesterday to the Commission, which
this year is focusing on population, development and HIV/AIDS, with particular emphasis on poverty.
"To conduct effective strategies, countries need to recognize that sexual activity is an inherent part of human
behaviour and that clear messages and inputs, like male and female condoms, were indispensable," he said, drawing on his
experience as one of the architects of Brazil's pioneering national AIDS strategy, which was created in 1983 after only
four known cases of the disease had been diagnosed there.
A follow-on national plan during the 1990s has been hailed worldwide for controlling the spread of the epidemic, and for
maintaining very low levels of prevalence in that huge country. One of its key aspects has been free and universal
provision of antiretroviral drugs and the promotion of local manufacturing of those drugs, he added.
Dr. Teixeira said that without exception, in all the countries where the epidemic had been curbed or decreased, policies
to promote the use of condoms had been adopted. There was no evidence that moral recommendations, such as abstinence and
fidelity, had any impact on infection prevention and curbing the epidemic. Although the promotion of safer sex involved
serious cultural, ethical and religious matters, that could not be allowed to become a barrier to prevention.
"We need a global strategy that takes into account the AIDS epidemic in all actions to promote development and to fight
poverty, including economic adjustment plans and foreign debt relief," he stressed
Although most of the countries affected have already adopted public policies and allocated funds to fight the epidemic,
he felt a much greater effort would be necessary, nationally and internationally, to face the spread of the infection,
to treat the people affected and to minimize its impact on populations.
According to Dr. Teixeira, some of the urgent issues that needed to be given priority in national agendas included:
moving forward with strategies to reduce the costs of antiretroviral and other drugs; providing universal and free
access to those drugs to guarantee the necessary compliance and regularity of treatment; and reducing the vulnerability
of women by fully implementing the Action Plan adopted by the 1995 International Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD), as access to adequate sexual and reproductive health services was the only possibility of
controlling the epidemic among that group.