The Summit and AIDS

There are two pressing reasons for talking about AIDS at the Venice summit meeting: The commitment of money from the seven leading industrial powers is essential to an effective global campaign, and their agreement on a reasoned policy is essential to head off the danger that the pandemic will be exploited by political extremists.

The United Nations World Health Organization needs $37 million in voluntary contributions this year to launch its Special Program on AIDS, and that amount will have to double in each of the next few years if the global program is to work. That is just the beginning. Most of that money will be used to coordinate technical assistance for poor nations establishing AIDS programs. Beyond that, there will be a need for significant funds to help pay for the programs themselves in nations that already are in dire economic circumstances. Until now, the World Health Organization has received only $2 million in cash and $28 million more in pledges from member states.

The work of WHO will be further facilitated by a summit declaration acknowledging the central role of the organization in coordinating the global effort. The European Economic Community already has agreed to fund only the Third World AIDS programs that have been approved by WHO. The usefulness of this was demonstrated a fortnight ago when WHO doctors played a key role in coordinating a $6-million foreign-assistance program for Uganda, one of the critically affected African nations.

Beyond their role in providing resources, the seven industrial powers can play a significant political role in resisting the extremism that already has taken a toll in two of the nations that will be represented at the Venice summit meeting. Again, the 12-nation European Community has created a model of appropriate action with the unanimous decision of its health ministers on May 15 to continue the free flow of persons across community frontiers without discrimination and without testing for AIDS. The health ministers “underscored the ineffectiveness, in terms of prevention, of recourse to all policies of systematic and obligatory screening, particularly at the time of health controls at border crossings.”

Unfortunately, this firm stand, virtually unanimously supported by public health professionals, has not deterred political extremists in Europe. In West Germany, in defiance of the federal government, the Bavarian regional government on May 19 imposed a mandatory AIDS testing program for all persons seeking public office, as well as for non-European immigrants seeking residence permits. In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen--the leader of an extremist right-wing political movement, the National Front--has made the isolation of people with AIDS into asylums a major campaign, and there is evidence that his crusade, although deeply flawed with misinformation, is having a public effect that could frustrate the French government’s own constructive program.

The summit meeting provides a rare opportunity for the seven great industrial powers to set an example for the rest of the world--an example of committing adequate resources to an urgent issue, and an example of political probity.