GENEVA, July 6, 2020 (AFP) - Millions have died needlessly from AIDS-related causes due to lack of access to existing therapies, the UNAIDS chief said, calling for a fairer approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
Winnie Byanyima recalls with anguish how two decades ago in her hometown in Uganda, she and others struggled to scrape together funds to help a close friend, who was suffering from HIV, to obtain the antiretroviral treatments she needed.
"At that time it was about $800 a month... Her salary was less than $100 a month," Byanyima told AFP in an interview, describing how her friend Jane would sometimes pull together enough for one month of treatment, only to be forced to skip the next one.
"She died six months before the price came down from $10,000 a year to $100 a year."
Byanyima, 61, took the reins nearly a year ago at UNAIDS, the Geneva-based Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS.
Speaking as her organisation launched its annual report, Byanyima hailed the "tremendous progress" in the fight against HIV/AIDS since the pandemic began four decades ago, including more than halving annual deaths from the peak of 1.7 million in 2004 to 690,000 last year.
But she decried that since the beginning, the development of treatments and the ongoing search for a vaccine had largely been left to the private sector.
She called for a dramatic shift in tactics as the world faces the towering challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She urged countries to "learn from the bad experience from AIDS, when medicines were found, but it took 10 years before people in our region in Africa could benefit."
"If you count in terms of 10 years how many lives were lost, we're talking of millions."
To avoid a similar scenario with the novel coronavirus, UNAIDS has been among the most vocal proponents for the development of a "people's vaccine", and for equitable and fair access to any treatments found.
"This time, let us have a common pool," Byanyima said.
The World Health Organization launched a global initiative in April to speed up the development and production of COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments, and to ensure fair access.
Byanyima stressed the need to make sure that every region and every country be given access to buy vaccines and treatments at an affordable price and that they "distribute to people for free", serving health workers and the most vulnerable people first.
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