Dan Rather, "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather"
20 March 2002

HIV/ AIDS is one of the most urgent public health issues humanity has ever faced. ... One hundred million are likely to be infected by 2005 unless we see what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called "a very significant and decisive intervention."

Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates Sr.
Los Angeles Times, 07 April 2002

What sub-Saharan Africa seems to need even more than it needs AIDS drugs is the improvement of its health care systems, the creation of livelihoods for families impoverished by AIDS illnesses and deaths, and the alleviation of the loneliness, poverty, and despair that are likely to motivate risky sexual behavior.

Helen Epstein and Lincoln Chen
"Can AIDS Be Stopped?"
The New York Review of Books, 14 March 2002

ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE AND POVERTY

"You could put $1 billion worth of drugs on a boat, ship them to India, put them on a dock and they won't get anywhere," Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) said. McDermott has made 16 trips to India in recent years to inspect the country's AIDS efforts.

Laurie Garrett
"AIDS Seen as Threat to World..."
Newsday, 15 October 2002

Because of political instability, economic stagnation, and misguided health sector reform policies mandated by donor institutions such as the World Bank, the health workforce throughout sub-Saharan Africa has been collapsing.

Epstein and Chen
The New York Review of Book, 14 March 2002

AIDS is compounded by the long-standing problems of poverty and war in the [Democratic Republic of Congo], where 90 percent of the population live with less than one U.S. dollar per day and enjoy almost no health care for lack of institutions and infrastructure following the three-year fierce civil war.

Francois Lepira, Director of the DRC National Anti-AIDS Program
Xinhua News Agency, 03 December 2001

It's not the drug cocktails that are going to enable us to overcome this major, major social problem. It can only be done by education, preventive health measures and creating better living standards.

Dr. Fred Sai, Chairman, National Population Council of Ghana
in Thomas Friedman, "It Takes a Village"
The New York Times, 27 April 2001

ABOUT NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

First of all, we need leadership. And my friends, that must start with you, the leaders of Africa. Only you can mobilize your fellow‹citizens for this great battle. Only you can give it the priority it deserves in your national budgets. Above all, you must take the lead in breaking the wall of silence and embarrassment that still surrounds this issue...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Address to the African Summit on HIV/AIDS
26 April 2001

There is overwhelming evidence that the AIDS epidemic can be controlled‹but only when governments make fighting AIDS a priority...

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS
"In Poor Nations, a New Will to Fight AIDS"
The New York Times, 3 July 2002

Uganda's experience underlines the fact that even a rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic can be brought under control. The axis of any effective response is a prevention strategy that draws on the explicit and strong commitment of leaders at all levels, that is built on community mobilization, and that extends into every area of the country.

"AIDS epidemic update December 2001"
UNAIDS and World Health Organization
28 November 2001

ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

Even if poor countries prevail and cross-border trade in copycat generic drugs is allowed, though, the market for many such medicines, especially the antiviral cocktails for AIDS patients, is likely to be restricted by an obstacle that may be just as daunting as patent-related import restrictions. ... Even the rock-bottom prices charged by generic manufacturers like Aurobindo of India are still far out of reach for most people in African nations ravaged by AIDS...

Celia W. Dugger
"A Catch-22 on Drugs for the World's Poor"
The New York Times, 16 November 2001

Government attacks on pharmaceuticals companies'patent rights-and campaigners' attempts to demonize them-are not the way forward. The hope of finding new drugs such as a vaccine for AIDS depends on the research and the profits that patent laws protect.

"Editorial: Patent nonsense"
Financial Times, 4 August 2001

[Ugandan] President Yoweri Museveni has said pharmaceutical companies should not be pressured to reduce AIDS drug prices before they have recovered research development costs. Museveni said putting pressure on the companies to provide the medicines free or at low prices without recovering their costs would kill research.

"Museveni Backs Aids Drug Companies" World Reporter, 12 June 2001

There's a feeling that if you provide enough pills, everything can be solved. But that is absolute nonsense. ... TB drugs are cheap-having long ago lost patent protection-and can be administered via a simplified six-month protocol designed for the developing world. Yet TB incidence is rising alarmingly.

Sebastian Lucas, professor of pathology
Guy's and St Thomas'hospital
Financial Times, 21 June 2001

ABOUT VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

Just when many thought the plight of South Africa's youngest and most vulnerable could not get much worse, it has with a disturbing spate of rapes committed against toddlers. Rapes have been fuelled by the myth that sex with a virgin will protect a man against AIDS or even cure him of the incurable disease.

"Suffer South Africa's AIDS Children" Reuters English News Service, 28 November 2001

Without any economic opportunities, young women throughout Africa have to sell their bodies for food or simply lack the power to negotiate sexual relations with older men or husbands.

Thomas Friedman
"It Takes a Village"
The New York Times, 27 April 2001

Women here [Congo Republic] suffer a higher infection rate than men. Health workers place part of the blame on rapes during the civil strife of the 1990s.

"African Nations Widen Medical Help to Women With H.I.V."
The New York Times, 01 September 2001

[H.I.V.] proliferates because of women's poverty and inequality. In Mozambique, the overall rate of H.I.V. infection among girls and young women-15 percent-is twice that of boys their age, not because the girls are promiscuous, but because nearly three out of five are married by age 18, 40 percent of them to much older, sexually experienced men who may expose their wives to H.I.V. and sexually transmitted diseases. ... Abstinence is not an option for these child brides. Those who try to negotiate condom use commonly face violence or rejection. And in heterosexual sex, girls and women are biologically more vulnerable to infection than are boys or men.

Pascoal Mocumbi
"A Time for Frankness On AIDS and Africa"
The New York Times, 20 June 2001

01/07/2003