U.S. Defends AIDS Policy

(CBS/AP)  The United States on Wednesday urged its legions of detractors to end their bickering over condoms and drug patents and join hands with Washington in a global partnership to fight their common enemy: AIDS.

"At this point, perhaps the most critical mistake we can make is to allow this pandemic to divide us," the U.S. global AIDS coordinator Randall Tobias told the International AIDS Conference.

"We are striving toward the same goal: a world free of HIV/AIDS. When 8,000 lives are lost to AIDS every day, division is a luxury we cannot afford," he said.

The United States has come under intense criticism during the six-day conference over its AIDS policies, with activists, scientists and governments finding fault with nearly every Washington policy on HIV.

Its insistence on abstinence as a first line of defense against HIV has been ridiculed as unworkable by proponents of condoms. Tobias said while the United States is not against condoms, an abstinence campaign in Uganda shows that the contraceptives are not the only solution.

"Abstinence works, being faithful works, condoms work. Each has its place," he said.

"He's lying, people dying," protesters chanted in near-constant heckling during the speech, which was initially delayed a few minutes when they massed near the stage.

Tobias noted that the United States is spending nearly twice as much to fight global AIDS as the rest of the world's donor governments combined.

President Bush has pledged $15 billion over five years to combat AIDS in Vietnam and 14 countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

"Please join with us in our deepened commitment to the global fight against HIV/AIDS," Tobias said.

Critics say the money comes with strings attached — it goes to countries that support Mr. Bush's abstinence-first policy. Also, the money currently can only buy brand-name drugs, usually American, shutting out cheaper generic medicines made by developing countries.

A U.N.-launched Global Fund allows generic drugs, costing as little as $150 per person per year, while those approved under the U.S. plan typically cost $700, said Joia Mukherjee, medical director of Partners in Health, which helps treat poor people in Haiti.

"The last thing I want to worry about is which bottle this stuff is coming out of," she told The Associated Press.

She said some U.S. administrators in Haiti quietly advise groups to use as much Global Fund money as they can on cheap drugs and, whenever possible, save U.S. money for health workers.

Many activists at the conference complain that the Bush plan gives only $1 billion a year to the Global Fund, where they say the money is much more effectively spent.

The United States' $10 trillion economy controls about a fifth of the world's $51 trillion gross economic product.

Tobias said Washington insists on name-brand drugs because their quality has been tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which so far has endorsed only branded drugs. However, the agency has indicated it would accelerate any applications for generic drugs.

An estimated 38 million people are infected with HIV, mostly in poor countries: 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa and 7.2 million in Asia.

Since the last AIDS conference in Barcelona in 2002, the number of people being treated for the disease has doubled in the developing world to 440,000. At the same time, 6 million people died from the virus and 10 million people became infected, World Health Organization figures show.

Wednesday's agenda featured sessions on the growing infection rates among youth and women.

Experts say nearly half of all people with HIV now are women, and their infection rates in many regions are climbing much faster than men's.

Raoul Fransen of the Netherlands told a plenary session that the abstinence-first approach did him no good, and that after learning he was HIV positive at age 15 he thought he would never have sex again, for fear of infecting others.

"It took a while before I was ready to experience intimacy again," said Fransen, now 26.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who joined the French delegation and other skeptics this week in criticizing the United States, urged Washington to show the same leadership in fighting AIDS as it has in fighting terrorism and contribute more to the Global Fund.

"Here we have an epidemic that is killing millions. What is the response?" Annan said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. in Bangkok.

French officials said the United States was trying to bully developing countries during negotiations on free trade agreements to give up rights produce generic drugs as granted by the World Trade Organization.

In a statement read out at the conference, French President Jacques Chirac said forcing certain countries "to drop these measures in the framework of bilateral trade negotiations would be tantamount to blackmail."