Posted: Monday, 30 November 2009

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) sees good news from the recent UN data in the 2009 AIDS epidemic update, showing that global rates for new infections are now 17% less than eight years ago.

That good news however must not be allowed to mask HIV and AIDS as a remaining global threat.  Hard won progress is fragile and reversible.

The news is very significant for infection hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. But Canada and other governments must remain vigilant when faced with a pandemic that now claims close to 2 million lives every year, and about another 2.7 million new infections per year. Currently, 33.4 million people in the world have AIDS.

The recent data proves that HIV prevention is making a huge difference and demonstrates the need for more strategic programming by governments and intergovernmental bodies, including the G8 and G20. Especially important is the need to increase prevention for people of working age who make up the overwhelming majority of new HIV infections.

Universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support

Despite the high death rates, the UNAIDS and WHO estimate that with the availability of effective treatment in 1996, some 2.9 million lives have nonetheless been saved. But the medicine shortages and unpredictable resources brought on by the global financial crisis underscored how this progress remains fragile.

There are huge imbalances between industrialized and developing countries with respect to the availability of treatment and HIV prevention services. The CLC joins with unions around the world in the call for Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. Access to antiretroviral therapy has made a difference in reducing new infections among children. The way forward is to see that this type of success is shared more equally. While HIV prevention measures are well known, prevention strategies in many countries are vastly underfunded.

The leaders of the most prosperous nations in the world, at the G-8 of 2005, committed to ensuring there would be universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. When they meet next year in Canada, the G8 and G20’s failure to meet their deadline will be evident, another 2 million will have died, and another 2 million will have become infected.

The time to act is now.

Strengthening Universal Access through workplace actions

The CLC has signed a partnership agreement with the African regional trade union body of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Together we have agreed to a joint programme of action to collectively work to breathe a new sense of urgency in the response to HIV and AIDS among working people on both continents.

There is a critical but often neglected role that workplaces can play as a platform for HIV prevention, and in some cases treatment and a range of AIDS-related services. Supporting the collaborative programmes of employers and labour is key, as is greater support for the Global Unions AIDS Programme.

Learn more about the CLC'S involvement with AIDS/HIV.