Head of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) urged Wednesday more actions in the fight against HIV/AIDS, saying "words alone do not work to fight the AIDS pandemic."
Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS, made the remarks at the on-going 17th International AIDS Conference here, which runs from Aug. 3 to Aug. 8.
At least 64 billion U.S. dollars are invested worldwide each year in fighting AIDS, said Piot, adding that there are now drugs of high effectiveness for HIV infected people.
But the director pointed out that none of the member countries of the Group of Eight (G8) has granted enough financial resources in the fight against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
While urging strict prevention plans, Piot said "We should not forget that even if we have good health systems in our countries, this does not guarantee the success in the prevention field."
According to Piot, AIDS is the main cause of death in Africa and Africans died of AIDS account for one fifth of deaths from the disease worldwide.
(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)