Brussels, 30/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On the World AIDS Day on 1 December 2004, the European Commission states it wishes to remind us all of the need to reinforce our commitment to confront this pandemic in Europe, where it continues to spread, and in the developing countries, where it has reached alarming proportions.
The last UN/AIDS report shows that the number of persons affected by HIV/AIDS in the world is close to 40 million and that young girls and women are often contaminated at an earlier age than men. In the EU, the number of new cases of AIDS has almost doubled since 1996. The most spectacular increase is in the Baltic States, but the situation in neighbouring countries, like Russia, is almost as serious.
This data in hand, the Commission plans to make education and youth awareness of this scourge a priority. Markos Kyprianou, Health Commissioner, who is to speak before the European Parliament on Wednesday, states in a press release: "Teenagers and people in their early twenties are too young to remember the safe sex campaigns of the 1980s and early 1990s. With HIV infection rates rising across the continent, urgent action is needed to avert a public health disaster".
Louis Michel, Commissioner for Development Policy, announces his firm commitment to "translate into concrete initiatives" the new "policy framework" established by the Commission to step u the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing countries (EUROPE of 30 October, p.11). He announces that he will present an Action Plan early 2005 and states: "Education and providing access to treatment for people infected will be my prime objective. The European Commission intends to pursue this with the WTO, through EC legislation on tiered pricing of pharmaceutical products".