Richard Burden MP: Fighting for a fair deal for everyone in Birmingham Northfield

World Aids Day (1 December 2008)

‘The UK must seize all opportunities to harmonise efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic which continues to have a devastating impact in the developing world’, Richard Burden MP has said today on World Aids Day.

Yesterday, ahead of World Aids Day, the International Development Select Committee – of which Mr Burden is a member – published a report of the Committee’s inquiry into the UK’s strategy for halting and reversing the spread of HIV in the developing world.

Welcoming the report, Mr Burden said:

‘The UK can take credit for being a global leader in tackling HIV/AIDS. The £6bn allocated by the Government to strengthen health systems in a number of developing countries underlines this.

‘In acknowledging the commitment which the UK has shown to tackling the scourge of HIV/AIDS, we on the International Development Committee also emphasise the importance of making sure the money the UK and other countries put in is used as effectively as possible. Part of that involves targeted funding to fill the gaps in prevention and treatment services for HIV/AIDS and making sure these services reach those most at risk. Part of it involves linking up HIV/AIDS strategies with those to tackle other mass killers in the developing world – such as TB and Malaria. And underpinning all of this is the need to strengthen health systems across the board in developing counties. Without this, the fight against the spread HIV/AIDS cannot be sustained over the long term.

‘Put together this means that different international efforts need to be harmonised and integrated. That has not always happened enough up until now. The USA, for example, has put very large amounts of money in to tackling HIV/AIDS. However, the reach of that investment and its ability to complement the efforts of others may have been undermined by the strings placed upon it. Under the Bush Presidency, the USA’s emphasis on abstinence has limited the effectiveness of condom promotion and safe sex programmes. The election of a new Presidency in the USA could offer huge opportunities for change.

‘Every day in the developing world nearly 6,000 people die from AIDS and nearly 7,000 more become infected. It is essential that the UK seizes all opportunities for the harmonisation of efforts to halt the spread of this epidemic.’

A copy of the report is available online here