CBC Article: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Blasted At The World AIDS Conference In Vienna Austria.
PM, Aglukkaq slammed on AIDS at world meeting
Canada isn’t doing enough to fight AIDS at home or around the world, the Canadian head of the International AIDS Society said Friday.
In his closing address to the International AIDS Conference in Vienna on Friday, conference chief Dr. Julio Montaner slammed Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
“I would also like to have a special word of recognition to the prime minister of Canada, Mr. Stephen Harper … for demonstrating, yet again, their incredible ability to take credit where none is due.”
Montaner, one of Canada’s most prominent AIDS researchers, said the federal government is “punching well below its weight” in funding international efforts to fight the disease and isn’t doing enough to protect Canadians from its spread.
U.S. support
U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged U.S. support in the global fight against AIDS in pre-recorded video statements at the close of the International AIDS Conference in Vienna on Friday.
“Ending this pandemic won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight,” Obama told delegates gathered for the conference’s closing ceremony. “But thanks to you, we’ve come a long way — and the United States is committed to continuing that progress.”
In her comments, Clinton said the U.S. believes access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care should be a universal and shared responsibility, and called health a human right.
During the conference, activists slammed rich G8 countries, including Canada, for failing to deliver on their commitment to ensure everyone infected with HIV and AIDS gets treatment by 2010.
In 2005, G8 leaders committed to developing and implementing an Africa-focused package for HIV prevention, treatment and care with the aim of getting “as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010.”
Treating drug use as a health issue instead of a criminal one cuts down on the spread of AIDS, said Glyn Townson, chair of the British Columbia Persons with AIDS Society.
“If you get people connected to services, whether they’re active drug users or not, the HIV medications will work, and that also decreases chance of the disease spreading further,” Townson said.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said the government is spending $72 million inside Canada on AIDS this year and more than $150 million a year internationally.
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