Appeals for action as AIDS conference gets underway

The biggest AIDS conference in history began in Barcelona today with an hour-long opening ceremony attended by 15,000 medical…

The biggest AIDS conference in history began in Barcelona today with an hour-long opening ceremony attended by 15,000 medical experts, government officials and activists fighting a fast-spreading global crisis.

In a welcoming message due to be read out on his behalf, UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan said the conference "brings together the world's best thinkers on AIDS, the most resolute decision-makers and the most trenchant activists."

"I will do my utmost to ensure that our reply to this epidemic is urgent, comprehensive and determined."

Local actors were to play out a brief drama to drive home the message of the six-day conference, whose theme, "Knowledge and Commitment for Action" typifies grim expectations that the fight against AIDS will be long.

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The UN AIDS organization last week estimated that in just over 20 years, 20 million people have died of AIDS and the disease could reap three times that harvest in the next two decades unless a major rescue effort is launched in poor countries.

Forty million people have HIV, 70 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, but the former Soviet Union and parts of Asia, particularly China, are also big risk areas, it said.

AFP