Posted on 12/14/2001 4:03:44 AM PST by kattracks
Clinton urges the west to spend more on prevention and research
The Aids epidemic ravaging Africa and spreading fast in eastern Europe and the Caribbean is a bigger potential threat to the peace and prosperity of the world than global terrorism, former US president Bill Clinton said yesterday.
Delivering the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial lecture for the National Aids Trust in London, he said it was absolutely vital to defeat Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, replace the Taliban, and return civil liberties to the people of Afghanistan, and he praised Tony Blair for his help and support.
"But these victories alone will not come close to building the world we will want for our children and our grandchildren. To do that we will have to create more partners and fewer terrorists by spreading the benefits and reducing the risks of the modern world," he said.
"There are now 40m people living with Aids. The number is projected to rise to 100m by 2005. If that happens, it probably will be enough to crumble fledgling democracies. It probably will be enough to spread violence among young people who fear that they only have a year or so to live and therefore can't understand why they shouldn't be involved in whatever conflict is handy."
In an uncompromising speech, he said that the world already knew what needed to be done. Both prevention measures and treatment were needed. Brazil was the only developing country to do both comprehensively and was paying for free antiretroviral drug treatment for everybody with Aids.
"They did a study in Brazil and found that it was cheaper to give people the drugs than bury them when they die and pay for their last few weeks in hospital," he said.
They decided it would be "morally wrong and economically stupid" to stop. In three years, the hospitalisation rate dropped by 80% and the death rate by 50%. "This is not rocket science. It is about money, organisation and will," Mr Clinton said.
The global fund for HIV/Aids, TB and malaria launched by UN secretary general Kofi Annan last spring needed $10bn (£7bn) a year, and yet only $1.5bn has been raised so far. And since September 11, only $2,000 has come in.
"We are facing the biggest plague since Europe lost a quarter of its people in the 14th century," he said, and in today's "world without walls", we can no longer cut ourselves off from the consequences of disaster or disease.
"Aids is at Europe's back door - proliferating fast in the former Soviet Union - and at America's front door in the Caribbean.
"September 11 showed us a lot of things. It showed us that we can't claim the benefits of the modern world, the benefits of the global economy and information technology and scientific advance and openness and democracy and avoid the vulnerabilities of this age of interdependence."
New mothers in the affluent north will soon be leaving hospital with a gene card for their baby and a set of health guidelines that will guarantee him a 90-year lifespan. It would be bizarre, he said, if children elsewhere were allowed to go on dying like flies.
The US share of the global fund should be just over $2bn and the UK's just under half a billion. Neither country has contributed more than a few million dollars yet.
"For the US, $2.2bn is about one tenth of 1% of the federal budget or about two months of the Afghanistan war, which costs about a billion bucks a month," said Mr Clinton.
"This is far cheaper than picking up the pieces of the shattered lands and shattered lives that we will live with if there are 100m Aids cases in 2005."
Aids, he said, "is the greatest test case for the age of inter-governance. "If we really want a great future for our children, we will have to make the world without walls a home for all our children".
clinton must have some inside information that is causing him to be so concerned with aids. could it be that he is infected and does not have his sexual controls in gear?
Ed
Why don't they start living a clean lifestyle? (For all the knee jerk reactions I do realize some people get it by transfusion, etc. but clean living is the beginning)
We could begin by moving Clinton to Antartica, so he can't find more girls to deflower/ infect.
Just because it's difficult, doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. The benefits are too great, and the costs of not doing so are too high.
Nice image for so early in the morning. I'll be chuckling all day.
Yes Bill, it is about money and I am sure that some big antiviral drug company is sponsoring your former royalness to make idiotic speeches like this one. Follow the money and the girls and you always find Bill Clinton.
Hell, just don't have sex outside of marriage. But we can't teach that because it has religios moral implications. Fine. Keep dying.
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