MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
Today I have committed to contribute $1 billion by 2010 to the ongoing global fight against HIV.
I announced the $400 million increase in Australia's existing $600 million commitment at the Third Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS - an unprecedented gathering of Asia-Pacific region business and government leaders. The meeting committed to greater private-public sector partnerships to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS in our region by 2015.
The meeting coincided with the 7000-strong International AIDS Society Conference which is being held this week in Sydney with financial support from the Australian Government.
Our increased effort to combat HIV in the Asia-Pacific has already started. In Papua New Guinea we are expanding our efforts to tackle the disease in every province preventing its spread and providing care and treatment for people already infected. We will continue our work with those most at risk: truck drivers, sex workers, young people in the settlements, soldiers and communities around mining sites. We have already established 70 counselling and testing sites and last year alone, distributed seven million condoms.
In other parts of the Pacific where the epidemic is still in its early stages, we will intensify our work to stop it spreading further and increase the access to vital treatment.
Similarly throughout Asia, we will strengthen our work with the local authorities to provide the best advice on tackling the disease particularly among commercial sex workers and injecting drug users. In Africa, we will support community groups in their work with people directly affected by HIV whether it's people already infected or their families.
By the end of this financial year we expect to have spent half a billion dollars on international HIV programs since the start of this decade and I am pleased to announce that Australia has now fulfilled its $75 million pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Our support to the Global Fund has helped it save the lives of more than 1.8 million people and provided more than one million people with anti-retroviral treatment for HIV.
HIV continues to challenge governments, communities and businesses around the world. Nearly 40 million people are living with HIV globally and up to one-fifth of these live in the Asia-Pacific region.
We cannot ignore the social and economic consequences of HIV in our region. For example, it is predicted that without increased and ongoing action, HIV will have killed 1.5 million people in Indonesia and 300,000 people in Papua New Guinea by 2025.
The Australian Government, in partnership with other governments in our region, businesses, researchers and international organisations, is committed to continuing the fight against HIV.
Media contacts:
Malcolm Cole (Minister's Office) 02 6277 7500
AusAID Public Affairs 0417 680 590