Is Universal Access for HIV a Realistic Goal?
By Robin Gorna
Yes. Universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support is not only realistic, it must be achieved.
Yes, we must do it now. The benefits - in lives saved, HIV infections and other illnesses prevented, families and societies supported, children schooled, economies restored, and futures safeguarded - are worth every dollar and every hour of effort invested. And yes, we have a lot of work ahead of us to make universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support a reality for all.
Skeptics say that the world's richest nations, the G8, over-promised when they committed in 2005 to ensure access to HIV services for all who need them by 2010. Or that 189 United Nations member states did not know what they were doing when they agreed in a unanimous vote to join the universal access pledge.
From my perspective, the problem is not over-promising. It's under-achieving
