Mr. president
General secretary Mr.Kofi Annan,
Your excellencies

I bring greetings from the International Aids Society as the member of the governing council. The special UN general assembly session to focus on the HIV/Aids is commendable and timely. We not only congratulate but thank for this leadership of the UN, Kofi Anan, Peter Not of the UNAIDS for organisning this special session.
We need to stop the spread of HIV and use the scientific insights already in our possession to prevent HIV/Aids. Prevention must be liked to CARE. The last 20 years we have focussed our attention on PREVENTION alone in the developing country scenario and let the future focus from today be on PREVENTION that includes CARE. As a professional medical doctor I know that we have treatment strategies available for HIV/AIDS and making available drugs to the infected individuals is a basic human right. It is our responsibility to provide appropriate treatments for people under our care.

Whether HIV/aids patients are in the African continent, OR in Asia pacific region OR in South America----the message is clear and loud.----that is-- we need to provide ARV as part of the care to the patients infected with HIV.

We need to allocate additional resources both at the national level and at the international level for the care of the infected.

International aids society has more than 12000 members in over 120 countries and is a society of scientists, health care and public health workers engaged in HIV/Aids prevention, control and care. We are committed to bring the new scientific advances to the center stage of public health----in vaccines, microbicides, appropriate antiretroviral regimens and in its implementation and monitoring.

 
We need to use the currently available strategies to interrupt the HIV transmission. The only tools that are available at present are the anti retroviral drugs. These are pivotal in reducing the transmission and in improving the quality of life of men, women and children.
I come from Tamilnadu in India. The mother to child transmission programmes initiated nationally show tremendous success in the voluntary counseling and testing and in the reduction of HIV transmission from mothers to infants. In addition these programmes have increased the "Risk perception" among women.
There is an urgent need to explore alternate treatment strategies appropriate for the developing countries. There is yet another urgent need not to delay the treatment administration till the perfect situation developer.
TRAINING of health care teams including physicians, nurses, laboratory staff and the village health nurses is yet another need.  International aids society is uniquely placed with its "Share Programme" working with local experts and public health officials throughout the developing countries to provide HIV/Aids educational programmes that are locally relevant.

Mr. President, we need to be bold, courageous and compassionate to provide care to individuals who are infected and are under our care.

Therefore let us all commit to
TRANSLATE KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION

Thank you for your attention