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| Thursday, 2 December 2004 |
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UN: AIDS poses same threat as nuclear terrorism UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday (AFP) AIDS is a global threat on a par with nuclear terrorism, according to a report on UN reform that warned of the potential of viral infections to claim tens of millions of lives worldwide in a matter of months. The report, commissioned by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and released Tuesday, warned wealthy nations that, in an age of globalisation and mass travel, they ignored the scourge of AIDS and other infectious illnesses at their own peril. While sub-Saharan Africa and Asia account for the majority of HIV infections, the report said the security of the most affluent countries could be "held hostage" to the ability of the poorest states to contain an emerging disease. "Because international flight times are shorter than the incubation periods for many infectious diseases, any one of 700 million international airline passengers every year can be an unwitting global disease-carrier," it said. Citing the death of 100 million people worldwide from the influenza pandemic of 1919, the report said that, today, a similar virus "could kill tens of millions in a fraction of the time." Highlighting the absence of any strategy to counter the long-term affects of AIDS, it also urged the UN Security Council to host a special session on HIV/AIDS as "a threat to international peace and security" on a level with nuclear proliferation, terrorism and inter-state conflict. "International response to HIV/AIDS was shockingly slow and remains shamefully ill-resourced," the report said, raising the quesion of whether much more would have been done if the disease had reduced life expectancy by 30 years "in non-African countries." Despite an increase in international spending to combat AIDS from 250 million dollars in 1996 to 2.8 billion dollars in 2002, the report said the spread of the disease remained "rampant," and estimated the cost of stemming infection rates at 10 billion dollars annually. The warnings about AIDS formed part of the report's underlying message that the international community needed a new consensus on global security that encompasses threats to both developing and developed nations and treats them with equal seriousness. As an example of collective action, the report cited the success in limiting the recent SARS outbreak. "Rapid response by the World Health Organisation and national agencies contained the spread of the disease and prevented a far more serious outbreak that could have threatened thousands of lives on several continents. On the same day the report was released, the head of the UN AIDS program said the number of HIV infections in China, India and Russia was on the verge of exploding into a crisis that could lead to tens of millions of new cases and threaten the stability of the world economy. "There is something new and ominous in the course of this epidemic," Peter Piot told reporters. "When the very act essential to furthering the human race also threatens it, then we are in a very dangerous place." |
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