Opinion Editorials & Interviews

World AIDS Day: Solidarity and Partnership

William J. Burns, U.S. Ambassador to Russia

Rossiyskaya Gazeta, December 01, 2006

It has been 25 years since HIV/AIDS first surfaced as the public health challenge of our time. In the last year alone, almost three million lives have been lost to the disease. The intervening years have been spent in partnership between nations, each of us looking for a cure, for ways to slow the progress of the disease, for ways to ease the suffering. It is fitting, therefore, that the theme of this year's World AIDS Day is the promise of partnerships.

I am proud that the United States and the Russian Federation are working together in the global struggle against HIV/AIDS. Our scientists are collaborating to develop vaccines against it. We are working to provide care and treatment for those living with HIV/AIDS in St. Petersburg and Orenburg Oblast. The Elmhurst Hospital Center of Queens, New York is working with the Orenburg Federal AIDS Center to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of HIV positive individuals. In St. Petersburg, the AIDS Training and Education Center opened November 14 to the medical professionals who provide care and treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS. And U.S. and Russian lab specialists are working side by side in Africa to strengthen HIV/AIDS laboratory capacity in Ethiopia and Namibia.

During the G8 Summit this past July, President Bush, President Putin, and other G8 leaders pledged to make the fight against HIV/AIDS a priority and reaffirmed their commitment to speed the production of an HIV vaccine. While the summit was proceeding, First Lady Laura Bush visited the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Clinic headed by Dr. Yevgeniy Voronin in St. Petersburg, where she participated in discussions about the special challenges facing children infected with HIV/AIDS.

With the assistance of U.S. researchers, Russian scientists in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk have developed candidate vaccines against HIV/AIDS. Other grants fund nearly 40 research projects in Russia on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, which is the most common cause of death among people living with AIDS. I know our HIV/AIDS researchers have learned a lot from their collaboration with Russian scientists, and I hope Russian experts have also benefited from working with their U.S. colleagues.

In addition, we are working together to share best practices in battling the epidemic within our two countries' armed forces. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense hold annual workshops to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention in the military context. Our militaries are now developing a pilot prevention program that will educate soldiers about how to protect themselves from infection.

If we are to succeed in the fight against AIDS, more of these partnerships are needed. According to statistics released by UNAIDS last week, the number of people living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia has increased by more than 20% since 2004. NGOs, governments, churches, schools, businesses, the media, and local communities all have critical roles to play in making prevention, treatment and care accessible to those in need, and in combating the stigma that continues to impede the response.

By combining the efforts of our countries' experts, we'll go further in defeating HIV/AIDS than either of us could alone. We look forward to a strengthened partnership with the Russian Federation in the global struggle against HIV/AIDS.