BILL CLINTON GATES STRESS NEED TO END STIGMA URGE MORE AIDS TESTING

The urgent need to stem the tide of new HIV infections is being undermind by the fact too few people know their HIV status and are unwitting spreading the disease former U.S President Bill Clinton warned Monday as he took the stage with Microsoft founder Bill Gates at the International AIDS conference. I don't see how were ever going to catch up unless people are at least aware that they could e giving the virus to other people clinton told a huge audience drawn by the chance to listen to two of the world's most influencial men-both committed warriors in the fight againist HIV/AIDS expound on the issue in a panel jokingly reffered to as the double. Bill were still behind the eight ball and I think we've got to continue to fight stigma and got stop people from being afraid of being tested. Ninety per cent of HIV-infected people in developing countries don't know the carry the virus Clinton noted. Even in wealthy countries such as Canada experts believe as many as 25 per cent or more of People carrying the virus are unaware they have it and may not be taking Precautions to prevent transmission. Faced with the one-two punch of social ostracization and no Access to life saving antiretroviral drugs, there is little encentive for people in many devloping countries to submit to HIV testing the scale up of Programs to deliver badly needed AIDS drugs to poorer countries could start to chip away at that problem. Bill Gates noted adding that having treatment broadly available does start to chance the dialogue. But a quarter-century into the AIDS Pandemic cracking the nut of stigma remains as elusive goal. Gates noted that in his travels to afflicted countries having a discussion with officials about the behaviours that fuel spread of the virus-unprotected sex and injection drug use is invariably an awkward encountered. I haven't come to a country where injecting drug use is easily discussed. I hope to go to that country someday where none of those things are controversial or hard to discuss. But we don't really have that the fight againist AIDS has always been complicated by the way the virus is spread. Despite strong scientific evidence supporting measures that reduce the risk of spread-including condom use and clean needles-moral and religious objections have often coloured official responses. The U.S government's President emergency Fund for AIDS Relief-more commonly known as PEPFAR-has come under sustained criticism at this conference for it's emphasis on abstained and monogamy over comdom use. But neither Gates nor Clinton would overty criticize the program which has been the leading deliverer of antiretroviral drugs to the devloping world. Foundation which works to get cheap generic AIDS drugs to people who need them in poor countries often works on the ground with PEPFAR-founded programs. But he did say that research suggest that stressing abstinence to young people appears to lead to delays in when kids start having sex but that when they do begin to have sex they are less likely to practrice safe sex. An abstinence-only program is going to fail and the end you're going to wind up being in a cruel fix Clinton said. The session began with a minor demonstration with a number of people drowning out the moderator to demand afluent countries stop poaching health-care workers from developing countries a practice that has left some of the world's poorest countries benifit of doctors and nurses. We need more nurses the protestors chanted actually agree with that clinton said taking the wind out of the disruption. We do need a lot more nurses. The former president did not agree however to a request from an audience member, perhaps at prime minister Stephen Harper who has refused to attend this conference. Clinton gracefully side-stepped the potentially awkward moment by noting that he has been in Canada so often since ending his presidency that he should check with his accountant to see if he ought to pay Canadian taxes. visit these websites. http://www.statehouse.go.ug/index.php http://www.usa-egypt.20m.com/ http://www.un.org/ http://www.eff.org/br/ http://www.amaguru.com/default.htm Bravo.