Clinton: US Committed to Achieving AIDS-Free Generation

Posted July 23rd, 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC-5)
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says America is committed to creating an “AIDS-free generation”

The diplomat spoke on the second day of an International AIDS Conference in Washington on Monday.

She told the gathering the U.S. is working to build sustainable health systems that will help the world “finally win this fight.”

“We will not back off. We will not back down. We will fight for the resources necessary to achieve this historic milestone.”

The fight against HIVS/AIDS has taken on an increasingly diplomatic strategy over the years.

Clinton said more countries are charting their own way forward, sometimes sparking a need for what she described as “difficult conversations.”

“Now I will admit that that has required difficult conversations that I'll admit, some leaders don't want to face. Like government corruption and the procurement and delivery of drugs, or dealing with injecting drug users. But it has been an essential part of helping more countries manage more of their own responses to the epidemic.”

Clinton announced the U.S. is ready to invest more, particularly in Africa where clinics are needed to help slow mother-to-child transmissions.

The U.S. is donating an extra $80 million dollars to help eliminate mother-to-child infections by 2015.

She also praised male-circumcision programs in Africa which have been highly effective in slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The diplomat recalled how far the world has come in fighting HIV/AIDS in the last two decades.

“Yes, AIDS is still incurable,” she said. “But it no longer has to be a death sentence.”

The United Nations says 34 million people lived with HIV / AIDS and 1.7 million died from the disease in 2011.

The conference is expected to draw more than 20,000 people from around the globe.