Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of Romanian Government.

Today, it is an extremely important day, today we all recognize in one voice, that HIV/AIDS is not any longer the problem of People living with AIDS, is a major problem of public health. For this reason Romanian Government declared HIV/AIDS as the main public health problem in our country.

At the moment, there are 6,894 children and 1747 adults living with HIV-AIDS in Romania. Of those 33% are on anti-retroviral therapy.

In the meantime we had to cope with the increasing demand for treatment and care and with increasing numbers of adults infected.

As the epidemic and it's impact have expanded, the number of committed partners in the national response has grown to include numerous Ministries, local and international NGOs, the private sector, the media, and the international donor community. The Government of Romania and it's non-governmental partners have therefore committed themselves to the development and coordinated implementation of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the period 2000 - 2003. This strategy focuses on the prevention of infection among youth and vulnerable groups, the prevention of nosocomial infection (originating in a hospital or health care setting), and on the social, legal, ethic and human rights aspects of HIV/AIDS. Priority attention is also given to improving health and social services, to supporting people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS (PWHA), and to strengthening epidemiological systems to monitor developments in the epidemic over time.

The existing system of care and surveillance ensures access to care to all the infected persons and has a good information database. This is doubled by a network of Hi-Tech medical equipment, that allows a good evaluation and monitoring of all treated and/or infected persons.

So, nine University Hospitals, serve as reference centers (RC) for HIV-AIDS in the country. In these centers viral load testing and CD4 counts are available. In general practice  patients referred to one of the RC has the choice to be followed-up in either the RC or the closest health center. Whatever the choice made by the patient, immunological, and virological follow-up have to performed in RC.

We introduced, since the beginning the latest therapies and we increased from one year to another, the budget allocated to the National HIV/AIDS Programme up to 20 million US dollars this year. The Romanian Government is committed to maintain the same budget or to even increase it in real terms within the next 4 years. This was not easy in a country in transition with severe budgetary restrictions and numerous other public health and social emergencies.
 

Despite the challenges we decided to declare HIV/AIDS the number one public health priority and to introduce beginning with this year universal coverage with treatment and care, including antiretrovirals, for the people living with HIV/AIDS. The medium term Action Plan towards universal access to treatment and care is based on a real partnership with United Nations and the Pharmaceutical Companies.

In this very moment Romania has the following national priorities for HIV/AIDS program:
o Intensification of prevention of HIV/AIDS infection among the youth and vulnerable social groups
o Prevention of mother to child transmition
o Prevention of nosocomial infections through a constant application of "universal precaution"
o Improvement of the quality of medical, social and psychological  assistance of people living with HIV/AIDS
o Reinforcement of surveillance and monitoring of this epidemic and the development of a system of social support for people    living with HIV/AIDS.
o Increasing from 33% to 100% the access to anti-retroviral therapy, access base on principles of equity, solidarity, cost-efficiency, and optimal quality in the goal to prolong the live span and to improve the quality of live by reducing mortality.
o Assurance of the antiretroviral therapy sustainability during the years
o Decreasing of the opportunistic infection rate with 33%
o Reinforcement of the VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) system

To accomplish those goals:

o budget allocates by the Ministry of Health and Family and by the National Insurance House increased constantly form 13 million USD in 1999 to more than 20 millions USD in 2001.
o Two months ago the Romanian Government cuts all the custom and VAT taxes for antiretroviral medicines and HIV reagents
o Ministry of Health and Family negotiate with the Pharmaceutical Co. for price reduction, and requested the support of UNAIDS for this purpose
o National AIDS Committee up-dated the Antiretroviral guide of Therapy

In the same time the Global Found for AIDS and Health might represent a new and very important tool in the management of HIV/AIDS.

We take note with satisfaction that our priorities and concerns are well reflected and included in the Declaration which will be adopted by this special session. Romania affirms its commitment to implement the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on HIV/AIDS, to take part in the international cooperation in this very urgent framework, further benefiting of support and assistance in carrying out its national programmes in combating the pandemic.

Thank you Mr. President.