Health professionals issue a wake up call on AIDS

Representatives of the three health professions, attending the historic first conferences of the World Health Professions Alliance in Geneva today, unanimously passed a resolution urging governments to recognise the scale of the tragedy facing the world and to immediately commit the necessary funds to fight the pandemic.

The conference, bringing together for the first time members from the International Council of Nurses, the International Pharmaceutical Federation and the World Medical Association, were moved to adopt the resolution after hearing a compelling and inspiring plea for support from Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The resolution adopted read:

‘Recognising that

• the current HIV/AIDS pandemic presents an extraordinary human, human rights and humanitarian crisis;
• especially women and children are affected;
• focused prevention programs can significantly reduce new infections;
• treatment options allow HIV positive persons to lead a quality life;
• without the appropriate prevention and treatment this crisis will worsen to a level where some countries’ populations may be decimated and their futures destroyed; and
• that countries at the heart of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, provided they are supported with the necessary financial and human resources, can rise to the challenge.

Therefore we, as leaders of the medical, nursing and pharmacy professions, call on national governments, intergovernmental agencies and health professionals to recognise the scale of the tragedy, to stop procrastinating and to commit, immediately, the necessary funds and resources against HIV/AIDS.

As health professional leaders we give our full commitment to this cause and call on all physicians, nurses and pharmacists to act as strong advocates and social leaders in the war against HIV/AIDS.’