Rich = Life Poor = Death

At the huge conference center in downtown Barcelona, scientists, activists, politicians, reporters and doctors from all over the world came together the second week of July 2002 for the 14th International Conference on AIDS.

The conference had a simple message: there are more and better medicines for rich countries and death for the millions with HIV in poor countries.

In the poor nations of the world, where five out of every six people live, the epidemic is getting worse. In Russia and India it is quietly exploding. Unless something is done immediately, whole countries in central Africa will collapse. It is a moral catastrophe, a political catastrophe and a potential national security nightmare.

There was hand wringing and impassioned speeches demanding the world get its act together and stop the epidemic by giving the small amount of money the world fund needs, a mere ten billion dollars a year.

But compassion was not heard from the most important representative of a powerful country -- Tommy Thompson from the Bush administration. He was the target of a loud demonstration as he talked about American programs that are too small to make a difference, misdirected, and too late for the few they might help.

Even the world's big drug companies have taken steps to help out. They have reduced their prices on AIDS medicines to cost, or free and withdrawn from law suits about their patent rights in South Africa, to allow for generic drugs to be used, and they have also donated hundreds of millions to poor countries.

It is a sad commentary on the world that for-profit drug companies are being more generous and sensitive to the plight of poor countries than elected governments that are supposed to care about people.

The world renowned Dr. Joep Lange, the President of the International AIDS Society that held this convention said that the real theme of this conference was access to medicines. He repeated a statement of a friend, who said, "a few years from now people will not be asking where the ten billion dollars are, but where are the three million people?"

Bill Clinton demanded money to stop the disease. He said the rich countries should figure out how much each owes of the ten billion needed, and pay their share.

Nelson Mandela joined Clinton in his impassioned plea to get moving. He said that there are millions of orphaned children in Africa because their parents could not afford the medicines that would have saved their lives.

In two years the next International AIDS Conference will be held in Thailand. At this conference, rich countries will be given their "report card" based on their support for the Global Fund. We cannot afford to get a failing grade.

In the words of Nelson Mandela, if you don't help the sick and dying then you lose the right to call yourself human.

David Scondras is the founder and chairman of Search For A Cure. Scondras developed the nationally-recognized HIV treatment series, Reasons for Hope.