International AIDS Society Newsletter, no. 21

Letter from the President

Dear Members of the lAS,
This being my last address as President, you
will allow me to say that I started drafting
these few lines with quite mixed emotions. At
the end of the Barcelona Conference, which I
am sure will mark another memorable milestone in the fight against HIV/AIDS, my twoyear term as President of the IAS comes to an
end.
I will not forget the extraordinary experience of the past two years. I indeed had the
privilege of serving the IAS during a period,
which has marked great progress in the global
battle against the pandemic. In the wake of
the XIII International AIDS Conference,
which IAS brought to Durban, South Africa,
there has been an increased awareness amongst
the HIV researchers and health policy leaders
regarding the need to offer HIV treatment in
addition to and linked with prevention efforts
in response to this crisis. Providing treatment
is an obvious moral imperative: the North of
the world cannot turn its back on the developing world, especially when the former is in
possession of potent therapies capable of saving so many lives and potentially curbing the
growth of the pandemic. Apart from the ethics
involved, however, providing treatment is in
the immediate interests of the entire world
community. In countries where adult HIV
prevalence approaches or exceeds 20%, AIDS
has already gone beyond a health care issue
and is seriously undermining the social and
economic infrastructure.
Indeed, immediately following the Durban
Conference, a number of important events
took place: the United Nations General
Assembly on AIDS (UNGASS) in June 2001,
with its declaration reaffirming that "access to
medication is one of the fundamental elements
to achieve the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health" and that "prevention and care, support and treatment for those
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS are mutu
ally reinforcing elements of an effective
response". Not to forget the establishment of
the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria and the Doha declaration of the
World Trade Organization, to facilitate free
trading of drugs.
Several seemingly reasonable objections
remain, however, to providing treatment in
the developing world, including cost, conflict
with other health emergencies, lack of adequate treatment training and infrastructure,
the complexity of HIV treatments, and the
risk of widespread diffusion of resistant strains
of HIV. We definitely need to respond to these
one by one. And the contribution of the IAS
to the international effort to bring treatment
and care to the South of the world and to
thoughtfully address these objections has been
increasingly relevant: from the visible presence
of our Society at the UNGASS, to the participation of IAS Governing Council members to
the Global Fund board and technical review
panel, and to the WHO effort to draft recommendations to scale up antiretroviral therapy
in resource limited settings. Not to forget the
integrated operational activities of the International AIDS Society: the Share educational
program, the Clinical Trials Partnership,
because research is also needed, and the HIV
Drug Resistance Global Surveillance Program
which is being launched through the joint
partnership of WHO and the IAS.
Finally, as promised at the Closing of the
Durban Conference, IAS decided to move the
International Conferences again from the
North to the South of the world, to the
Asia/Pacific region, yet another epicentre of
the epidemic. In 2004, the XV International
AIDS Conference will take place in Bangkok,
Thailand. In many respects, the HIV epidemic
in some parts of Asia, like India, is currently
where the epidemic in South Africa was some
5-10 years ago. Unfortunately, the pandemic
in Southeast Asia will most likely increase at a

STEFANO VELLA, President

similarly exponential rate if appropriate interventions are not put in place and if awareness
is not raised.
We cannot forget, however, that this is just
the initiation of a long process. The past two
years only represents the "end of the beginning"
and new challenges face not only IAS, but all of
us. I would therefore like to warmly welcome
the new incoming President of the IAS, Joep
Lange, with whom I have worked in close association and who shares the same dedication as I
to continue having IAS as a protagonist of the
battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Let me thank you all: the IAS Members,
the Governing Council, our Secretary-General
Lars O. Kallings, and the staff at the IAS
Headquarters and Offices, for the trust, the
support, the guidance and the committed
work of the past two years.

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