UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 359In 1996 scientistsannounced at theInternational AIDSConference in Vancouver,Canada, that antiretroviraltherapy could signifi cantlydelay the onset of AIDSrelatedillness. But thecost was too high for mostinfected people in developingcountries.UNAIDS/E.Millerefforts to inform and interest journalists. Winter knew this was not good enough; she broughta more sophisticated approach from her United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) experience,including media training for many UNAIDS staff. Its success would soon be tested, in July, at thefirst major event for UNAIDS – the 11 th International AIDS Conference, the biennial gatheringof the world’s leading medical and scientific AIDS experts and grassroots organizations.The conference was held in Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada. (Unlike the UnitedStates, Canada had an open door policy to people with HIV.) “This was key”, said Winter, “toseeing whether UNAIDS was actually going to make its mark”, because it was a significantopportunity for advocacy and publicizing its work to an audience of around 15 000 delegatesand 2000 members of the international media community.At previous international AIDS conferences, the mood had tended to be pessimistic;Vancouver heralded a new era of hope with the announcement of new scientific advances.The major news at the conference was that highly active antiretroviral therapy (the combinationof three or more different antiretroviral drugs, taken simultaneously and regularly) couldsignificantly delay the onset of AIDS in people living with HIV. Typical media headlines were:‘Usual air of desperation gone’; ‘Glimmers of hope’; ‘At last a treatable disease’.But it also became clear that the conference slogan ‘One World, One Hope’ was at best avision for the future. The theme was intended to emphasize the need for people to worktogether in combating the epidemic and mitigating its impact. However, the majority ofactivists attending were from the developed world and, as many would admit, were not yetinvolved with the developing world’s problems.