Officials Warned on AIDS Complacency

A top official of the World Health Organization issued a strong warning Tuesday against complacency in the battle against AIDS as an unprecedented AIDS conference of nearly 150 nations opened here.

“It is too early for any sense of relief--quite the contrary,” Dr. Jonathan Mann, director of WHO’s Special Program on AIDS, said in his keynote address. “We are still in the early phases of a global epidemic.”

Mann’s hope for 1988, he said, is “to begin to slow the spread of the AIDS virus,” which is already estimated to have infected between 5 million and 10 million people. He predicted a cumulative total of 1 million AIDS cases by 1991.

Practical Advice

The three-day meeting of health ministers at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center is being held to provide top government health officials with practical advice on measures to prevent the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

The World Summit of Ministers of Health on AIDS conference, co-sponsored by WHO and the British government, has attracted about 720 delegates from 146 countries, including 114 ministers of health, as well as hundreds of observers. According to Mann, it is the largest gathering of health ministers “at any time, at any place, for any purpose.”

It is hoped that the meeting, and a declaration that the ministers are expected to adopt Thursday, will strengthen AIDS control throughout the world.

The summit opened with poignant pleas for international cooperation from Britain’s Princess Anne and Dr. Halfdan Mahler, WHO’s director general.

“The global response to AIDS has been characterized by a series of delays,” the princess told the delegates. “World summits are not quick or easy to organize and don’t always produce results. Please make this one work.”

Mahler told the gathering that ministers of health “have a moral responsibility for ensuring the political commitment of your governments as a whole in the fight against AIDS.”

No Evidence

But Mann acknowledged that there is no evidence that this process has begun on a global level.