UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 5“We’re keen on this partnership”, said Ayanda Ntsaluba, theSouth African Director General of Health, adding that a teamfrom his country would be heading to Brazil “very soon” 7 .113Prompted by a strong activist movement, Brazil had pioneeredaccess to antiretroviral treatment to all in need of it. Eventhough Brazil is a medium-income country, the cost of brandeddrugs was too high so it started making generic versions ofHIV drugs in its own laboratories. For these drugs, the pricestumbled by more than 70% in four years. By 2000, Brazil’s AIDSdeath rate had been halved, and HIV-related hospital admissionshad fallen by 80%.Former PresidentFernando HenriqueCardoso of Brazil.UNAIDSWorking with uniformed services andpeacekeepers to prevent HIV transmissionFollowing Durban, the political momentum gathered pace. On 17 July, at another UN SecurityCouncil session, AIDS was debated again and Resolution 1308 was passed, requesting theUN to develop further AIDS prevention and education for all peacekeepers as part of predeploymentorientation and ongoing training. This resolution would lead to developingUNAIDS’ work on prevention among peacekeepers, military personnel and other uniformedservices worldwide, under the leadership of Ulf Kristofferson (who had previously workedwith UNICEF and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) asDirector of its office on AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response.It had been clear for some years that armed forces, including UN peacekeepers, were at riskof contracting and spreading HIV. These young people often spend long periods of timeaway from their families; they are more likely to have multiple partners and unprotected sex,condom use is often incorrect, inconsistent – or entirely lacking 8 . Sex industries often growaround military bases in response to demand.As a major UNAIDS publication on AIDS and the military described 9 , during peacetime, ratesof sexually transmitted infections among armed forces are generally two to five times higherthan in comparable civilian populations; in times of conflict, they can be more than 50 timeshigher. But there are exceptions; in Senegal, for example, rates are lower among soldiersthan among civilians.7Schoofs M (2000). ‘Turning point. The International AIDS Conference makes a commitment to saving thirdworld lives’. Village Voice, 19 July.8UNAIDS (Third Revised Reprint, 2005). On the Front Line: A Review of Policies and Programmes to AddressAIDS among Peacekeepers and Uniformed Services. Geneva, UNAIDS.9Ibid.