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UN Holding Conference on Global AIDS Response

   VOA News  June 08, 2011
   UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and President of Gabon Ali Bongo
   Ondimba confer during a meeting of the Security Council at United
   Nations headquarters in New York, June 7, 2011

Photo: AP

   UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and President of Gabon Ali Bongo
   Ondimba confer during a meeting of the Security Council at United
   Nations headquarters in New York, June 7, 2011

   World leaders are meeting Wednesday in New York for the first day of a
   United Nations AIDS conference aimed at charting the path of the global
   response to the epidemic.
   The U.N. says member states are expected to adopt a new declaration
   outlining their commitments.
   U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the General Assembly's
   high-level meeting on AIDS comes at a "pivotal moment" in the 30-year
   history of the epidemic. He called on the international community to
   unite for universal access to treatment.
   On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution
   underlining the need for continued international action to halt the
   impact of AIDS and HIV - the virus that causes the disease - in
   conflict and post-conflict situations.
   Tuesday's discussion focused on how U.N. peacekeeping missions can be
   important players in an integrated response to combat and prevent the
   spread of AIDS.
   The disease has killed nearly 30 million people since it was first
   reported three decades ago.
   UNAIDS estimates 34 million people are living with the virus worldwide
   - 22.5 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. It says in nearly all
   countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of people living with HIV
   are women, especially girls and women aged 15 to 24.
   The U.N. says 10 million people around the world are still waiting for
   treatment.
   The 15-member Security Council took up the AIDS issue only once before,
   in 2000, when it adopted a resolution that recognized the potential of
   the epidemic to pose a risk to stability and security if left
   unchecked.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP.