A WHO speech, a Pacific Islands impact

A WHO speech, a Pacific Islands impact

It would be too late for apologies, and Dr. Paul Van Look from the World Health Organization (WHO) is not making any. Instead he uses his inauguration speech at the International Conference on Actions to Strengthen Linkages between Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS to own up to missed opportunities and encourage new action.

“International organizations, including World Health Organization, were too slow in understanding our role in HIV and AIDS. Somehow the link was not made,” says Dr. Van Look, Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO. “I think we have an obligation to make up for lost opportunities in the last 10 years, and by “we” I mean policy makers.”

He started his career with WHO the very year that HIV made it’s first appearance on the global scene – 1981. Today, 25 years later, an estimated 40 million people are living with the virus. Talk about missed opportunities from the largest and furthest-reaching international health organization.

Fortunately when change came, it came swiftly. From increased condom use and condom promotion to an exhaustive booklet on sexual and reproductive health of women living with HIV/AIDS, the WHO has stepped up to the challenge. But the WHO are no the only international organization to recognize lost opportunities.

“The world was slow to recognize the gravity of this new health crisis, and in the years in which AIDS remained off the political agenda, the infection took a foothold that has not yet been relinquished,” says a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) statement.

This is a foothold that has just begun to entrench itself in the Pacific Islands where reported HIV cases, when looked at on a regional scale, show that numbers have almost doubled every five years since 1985.

While numbers of HIV cases remain low in the Pacific Islands, approximately 12 000 known cases, without a serious commitment from our Pacific leaders, it will be us echoing this speech in future years. It will be us who owe apologies to those infected and affected by HIV.

Dr. Van Look’s comments are a call, perhaps even a plea, that lessons can be learned.

ends

© Scoop Media