E-drug: BMJ website of the week: AIDS
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BMJ 2001;322:1496 ( 16 June )
Reviews
Website of the week
AIDS: the global challenge
With 23 million people dead and 36 million HIV positive, the need to do
more to tackle AIDS is painfully clear. This week's BMJ (pp 1440, 1451,
1475) draws attention to the catastrophe. To get a comprehensive internet
update on AIDS, the best website to visit is http://www.aegis.com. This is
the largest HIV/AIDS site and it contains a vast amount of information,
useful links, and an impressive news archive, which is updated hourly.
As we went to press it was heartening to be signposted to an article in the
Washington Post suggesting that the new Global Health Fund to tackle AIDS,
tuberculosis, and malaria is gathering momentum. France has joined the
United States and United Kingdom in making a formal pledge ($127m; �89m).
The first corporate donation ($1m) has just been made by a subsidiary of
Credit Suisse. The sums are paltry compared with the $10bn target, but
these donations may spur other governments and private institutions to
follow suit at the United Nations General Assembly session on HIV/AIDS next
week.
At this meeting, recent data will be aired showing that the HIV/AIDS
epidemic is worsening, not only in Africa but also in parts of Asia and
Latin America. Most of those affected live in Africa and although
http://www.safaids.org and http://www.gnpplus.net are African AIDS sites,
neither approaches the quality or topicality of http://www.thebody.com a
global network that aims to improve the quality of life of people with
HIV/AIDS. Comprehensive news updates and useful links complement a wealth
of practical information.
Jumping off to http://www.avert.org/news.htm reminded me that, despite the
pledge to donate 0.7% of GNP to development assistance, the UK still
donates only 0.31%. Most Scandinavian countries do much better. By
contrast, the US is bottom of the list, contributing a miserly 0.1%.
Tessa Richards.
BMJ trichards@bmj.com
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