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CNN Live At Daybreak

United Nations Meets to Develop AIDS Strategy

Aired June 25, 2001 - 08:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're getting ready for an historic meeting in New York. It starts in the next hour. And that's when thousands of scientists and world leaders will be meeting at the United Nations on a war strategy.

CNN's Richard Roth reports this is the war against a major international health crisis.

Tell us more, Richard. Good morning.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Of course, AIDS has been around for 20 years. But now U.N. leaders and other government figures think there's momentum in the international community towards doing something about the disease so it doesn't become a worldwide emergency -- here at the U.N., the three-day conference starting.

And just moments ago, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, along with the president of the General Assembly -- as you're looking live at Secretary-General Annan about to unveil the AIDS quilt here in honor of all those who have died, a memoriam for those people, and to remember those who hopefully will not lose their lives in the future, but are infected with the virus right now.

Over the weekend, lit up in the New York sky: an AIDS ribbon to signify the event, a red AIDS ribbon around the sides of the United Nation's building in the daytime and also at nighttime, all for this unprecedented global event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: The United Nations, it's goal: World peace. But the U.N. is declaring war, not on a country, but on a disease. First the time, the 189 members of the U.N. will hold a special meeting to debate a health issue. AIDS.

JEFFREY SACHS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: It is recognition of course that this is not a normal case of the disease. This is the greatest disease challenge that humanity has faced in modern history.

ROTH: Last year, the U.N. signature agency for protecting the world, the Security Council, held an unprecedented session on AIDS, declaring the disease a threat to international security. Now it is the General Assembly's turn.

AMB. PENNY WENSLEY, CO-CHAIR, U.N. AIDS CONF.: There is essentially a strong wish on the part of member states to really have concrete actions and to define a set of targets.

ROTH: The biggest target: money. A proposal spearheaded by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asked governments in the private sector to raise $7 to $10 billion annually for a AIDS war chest by 2005.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: Let's be in no doubt, the world has the resources to defeat this epidemic if it really wants to.

ROTH: Annan's rallying cry has drawn less than one billion so far. The U.S. has offered $200 million, which angers an activist with AIDS.

EVAN RUDERMAN, HEALTH GAP COALITION: I don't understand how people could even conceive that the sum that United States has contributing would barely cover the cost of what we're talking about in terms of world epidemic.

ROTH: Though AIDS been here for 20 years, the battle has yet to be fully joined in many parts of the world. 36 million people are infected. In African countries, the U.N. estimates one in five adults has AIDS or the HIV virus that causes it.

The U.N. wants the AIDS conference to spark international action and spur public and private sector interest.

PETER PIOT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, U.N. AIDS PROGRAM: It will improve the understanding of the need to involve people with HIV. Those at most at risk in the fight against AIDS. But the world is not going to change suddenly because we have a U.N. conference.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Of course, the United Nations knows fully well that, but they think that there is enough momentum. You're now seeing the AIDS quilt fully unfolded here. There are still a lot of struggles and debates to go on over money, and where it's going to be targeted for the victims, and how to fight AIDS.

Richard Roth, CNN, reporting live at the United Nations.

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