Sir, - There has been much debate (and some progress) on getting the international drug companies to reduce the cost of HIV/AIDS treatments to sufferers in developing countries.
Any effort to get the necessary treatment to the poorest of the poor is to be welcomed, but the bottom line is that the vast majority of people who need these drugs don't have any money whatever. To stem the tide of the greatest health and humanitarian problem facing mankind today, these medicines must be made available free of charge to the many millions of HIV/AIDS sufferers in the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
What price do we put on the lives of over 30 million people in poor countries who are known to be living with or dying from HIV/AIDS? Getting these drugs to everyone in the world who need them is perhaps the most important struggle facing the world today. The Irish Government has a responsibility, in the name of all of humanity, to bring that struggle to the debating chambers of the UN Security Council. - Yours, etc.,
John o'Shea, GOAL, PO Box 19, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.