In a declaration issued by the United Nations General Assembly this week, the nations of the world have committed themselves to wage war in earnest against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As the U.N. member-states are pledged to reach targets by specific dates to drastically reduce the incidence of the disease and provide care for those afflicted, this is not a document that can be filed away and forgotten. Although the document is not legally binding, it makes the nations that have endorsed the document accountable for what they do or do not do in reaching the prescribed goals.
It is unprecedented that the world's peacekeeping body has held a special three-day session on a health issue. But considering the magnitude of the pandemic, which is the modern equivalent of the Black Death of centuries past, there is one unavoidable question: Why wasn't international action taken much earlier?
Two decades have gone by since AIDS -- and the potential threat it posed to humanity -- was first recognized. Over those 20 years, 58 million people have been infected with HIV and 22 million have died. Currently, 36 million people are HIV-positive, a number that is projected to balloon to 100 million by 2005 unless multiple measures are taken to stem the spread of the deadly virus.