MSF Reaction to Secretary Clinton’s Remarks at the International AIDS Conference, July 23, 2012
Speaker: Sharonann Lynch, HIV Policy Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign.
"The US government's commitment to turn around the epidemic is good news, but all donors need to reverse their flat funding for global HIV/AIDS so we can speed up scale-up and reach the one in two people in urgent need of treatment that still do not have access. Many countries where we work are increasingly stepping up to turn science into policy and practice, but will need the promised increase of international support to get it done. What Secretary Clinton and the US government put on the table is a plan to stop HIV, but we also need the US to pledge to do no harm with its trade policies. Right now, the US is undermining its own efforts to increase access to HIV treatment globally by pushing the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement that will ultimately restrict the production and availability of affordable generic medicines needed to fight this plague."