Leaders challenged on AIDS

AIDS has rewritten the rules and the global community must do the same if it is to prevail against epidemic, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said on Friday.

As the curtains came down on the week-long conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Piot told the delegates that the meeting had exposed priorities which had, until now, been ignored “For me this week was clearly about taking responsibility. It is now our collective responsibility to make the money work for people,” he said.In a hard hitting speech, Piot called on leaders to take hold of the opportunity at had to make a change.”Unless we fully embrace country and community ownership, we will be inviting chaos 10 years down the road.Unless we invest in institutional and human capacity, we will have applied band-aids, instead of building a sustainable response to AIDS,” he warned.Piot said it was time to move from tactics to strategies and to combine long-term investments with crisis management.”There is no time to be divided by institutional agendas.We all have the same goals, and we must work together – each playing to our individual strengths,” he said.Also speaking at the closing ceremony, World Health Organisation Director General Dr Jong-wook Lee stressed the urgent need for solidarity in increasing access to AIDS prevention, treatment and care.”History will judge all of us by our response to HIV-AIDS.That response must meet the high ambition and bold commitments of this conference:Access for All.Let us now go and put it into practice,” he said.It is now our collective responsibility to make the money work for people,” he said.In a hard hitting speech, Piot called on leaders to take hold of the opportunity at had to make a change.”Unless we fully embrace country and community ownership, we will be inviting chaos 10 years down the road.Unless we invest in institutional and human capacity, we will have applied band-aids, instead of building a sustainable response to AIDS,” he warned.Piot said it was time to move from tactics to strategies and to combine long-term investments with crisis management.”There is no time to be divided by institutional agendas.We all have the same goals, and we must work together – each playing to our individual strengths,” he said.Also speaking at the closing ceremony, World Health Organisation Director General Dr Jong-wook Lee stressed the urgent need for solidarity in increasing access to AIDS prevention, treatment and care.”History will judge all of us by our response to HIV-AIDS.That response must meet the high ambition and bold commitments of this conference:Access for All.Let us now go and put it into practice,” he said.