Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 Mar 2001

Vol. 533 No. 3

Written Answers. - HIV-AIDS Treatment.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

88 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he is in a position to mobilise international opinion with a view to a major campaign to tackle the AIDS problem throughout Africa with particular reference to the ready availability of affordable treatment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8584/01]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

HIV-AIDS is having a devastating impact on the poorest countries and is contributing to an increase in poverty and a decline in development indicators. In December 2000, more than 36 million people were estimated to have been infected with HIV-AIDS. More than 22 million people have died of the disease to date. HIV infection is concentrated in countries that can least afford the sickness, death and loss of productivity it brings. In Southern Africa, the HIV-AIDS infection level in the adult population now exceeds 25% in many countries.

HIV-AIDS is a major public health and development challenge in all of Ireland Aid's priority countries, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique and Lesotho. Ireland Aid has integrated the fight against AIDS into all of its development activities. There are now HIV-AIDS programmes in all of our priority countries and in Zimbabwe and Ghana. Our funding to UNAIDS has increased from $75,000 in 1999 to $500,000 in 2001. We will contribute £1.5 million to the international AIDS vaccine initiative in 2001.

Our growing aid budget will allow us to augment international support with an increased volume of financial resources for HIV-AIDS activities at country level. These investments will be complemented by an intensified involvement in the development of health systems that are responsive to the many challenges presented by the AIDS epidemic.

Most of the 36 million people who are infected with HIV cannot access effective treatment. In Africa less than one out of every 1,000 people with HIV-AIDS is benefiting from combination anti retro-viral therapy. At a cost of up to US $10,000-$15,000 per person per year, medicines to slow the progression of AIDS and to control opportunistic infections are far beyond what most African governments can afford.

Last year the Taoiseach wrote to the President of the European Commission, Mr Prodi, urging an accelerated EU response to the AIDS crisis and raising the issues of access to drugs for poor countries. In September 2000 the Commission issued a communication on accelerated action against HIV-AIDS, malaria and TB. It has since followed up this communication with an action plan. Accelerated action aims to increase the effectiveness of existing interventions, deals with affordability through the proposed introduction of tiered pricing and strengthens research into vaccines. The action plan gives priority to spending on health, AIDS and population, HAP, activities in the EC development co-operation programme.

Following the EU-Africa Heads of State summit in Cairo in April 2000, Ireland and the European Commission drafted a plan of action, a key focus of which is to improve access by African countries to essential medications. This EU plan will now be discussed with African states in the follow-up process to the EU-Africa summit.

In a statement to the UN Security Council on 19 January, we called for an intensification of efforts by UN bodies, drugs industry and other relevant organisations to address the complex issues of access to medicines and overcoming obstacles in that regard.

We will continue to use our membership of the UN Security Council to highlight this critical issue and ensure our concerns are reflected in EU policy dialogue and programme direction. We will actively participate in the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session HIV-AIDS in New York in June of this year and at the special session on children in September. In addition, the Irish Government will strengthen its involvement in the international partnership for AIDS in Africa over the forthcoming months, and will continue to increase the volume of contributions to HIV-AIDS activities in UN agencies such as UNICEF, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation.

In recent weeks there has been considerable progress. A number of major pharmaceutical companies have offered to supply poor countries with key drugs at or below cost price. The EU and the US are discussing how to put in place an international system which would permit the sale of these deeply discounted drugs to poor countries in a way which would prevent them being smuggled back on to the markets of developed countries. International discussions on the establishment of one or more global funds for the purchase of the drugs for poor countries are also at an advanced stage.

Although the provision of affordable medicines is a crucial issue, it is one element in the comprehensive strategy which is necessary to halt and reverse the spread of HIV-AIDS in poor countries. In the long-term access to universal high quality health care is essential if the spread of HIV-AIDS and other communicable diseases is to be stopped. Political leaders need to recognise the gravity of the threat and take the lead in educating the public on prevention measures. National prevention strategies need to be put in place. Children orphaned by HIV-AIDS require care. Research into an AIDS vaccine has to be accelerated and properly funded.

The rapid spread of HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa has its roots in poverty. Intensified efforts by the international community to meet the UN target of reducing by half the number of people living in extreme poverty – defined as an income of less than $1 per day – through increases in overseas development Assistance, debt relief and the mobilisation of development finance would make a major contribution to fighting HIV-AIDS. Ireland Aid will continue to focus its programmes on the eradication of poverty and will, in the coming years, be able to allocate significantly higher resources to this objective.