David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Dec 13 2007 (IPS) – AIDS has become a forgotten disease in the European Union, according to the man in charge of the bloc #39s public health policies.
Markos Kyprianou, the European commissioner for public health, has said that while AIDS awareness had been promoted through aggressive information campaigns in the 1990s, when slogans such as #39Don #39t Die of Ignorance #39 were used, whole generations of young people have not been exposed to the same messages.
A lack of knowledge among young people had been highlighted by opinion polls on the subject, he added. Whereas some believed they did not need to worry at all about the AIDS, others were unaware of how the disease can be transmitted, wrongly believing that it can be acquired through touching someone who is HIV-positive, sharing a glass or through kissing.
Kyprianou, who was addressing members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Wednesday, said that visiting a school to mark World AIDS Day (Dec. 1) had been an eye-opener for him. The pupils he met know that using condoms is the best protection but they are too embarrassed or too shy to buy them, he added.
The latest United Nations data indicates that at least 760,000 EU citizens are living with HIV, with the number of infections increasing since 2002. In Europe and Central Asia, the number of people with the virus doubled over a six-year period: from 1.25 million to 2.4 million.
During 2005, the EU recorded nearly 27,000 new diagnosed cases of HIV.
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Yet despite calling for AIDS to be placed at the top of the political agenda, Kyprianou said that the European Commission lacked the power to take all the action needed. Responsibility for many aspects of health policy has been guarded jealously by national capitals in the EU #39s 27 countries.
British Conservative MEP John Bowis said that throughout the world, 2.3 million children are living with HIV, with one-third of all infected infants dying before their second birthday.
More than 15 million people under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, with that figure likely to rise to 20 million by the end of the decade.
The level of basic knowledge (within Europe) has been going down over last five years, while the myths and misunderstandings have been rising, Bowis added. One in five don #39t know that it can be transmitted through sex without a condom.
Bowis also voiced concern about the predicament of rejected asylum seekers living with HIV, whose status means they are deprived of medical treatment.
Socialist MEPs recently launched a campaign urging that a common rate of value-added tax (VAT) be applied on condoms throughout the EU.
Sweden and Denmark tax condoms at a rate of 25 percent the highest in the Union with Ireland levying a 21 percent rate.
The Socialists have asked that the varying tax levels should be addressed when a review of the EU #39s VAT system is undertaken during 2008. They are urging that no more than the legal minimum of 5 percent should be charged. Britain recently decided to reduce its VAT on condoms from 17.5 percent to 5 percent.
There are 23 million people suffering from HIV-AIDS in the world, said Dutch Socialist Jan Wiersma. But many people don #39t want to talk about it because it would involve dealing with sex.
German Christian Democrat Holger Krahmer said that an approach of the bolder, the better should be taken in awareness campaigns.
Italian left-wing MEP Vittorio Agnoletto complained that he would have expected much more concrete and pragmatic proposals from the European Commission than those it has made to date. The EU #39s executive, he argued, should be pushing for mandatory sex education in schools across the Union.
He also voiced fears over how intellectual property rights on medicines for treating AIDS are being used in a way that makes them too expensive for victims, especially in poor countries. Large drug firms are seeking a 20-year patent on new drugs as a norm, he added.
He protested against the support that such firms have received from Peter Mandelson, the European commission for trade.
During the summer, Mandelson wrote to the Thai government, complaining how it had been using compulsory licences to override patents on drugs in order to ensure that people suffering from AIDS and other diseases could have access to cheap, generic versions of medicines.
Pierre Schapira, a French Socialist, described AIDS as one of the scourges of the 21st century.
Boosting access to medicines is vital, he argued, as people with AIDS have been known to develop resistance to treatments and often need to have the latest available drugs. He argued that no provisions should be inserted into new trade agreements that would limit the scope of countries to waive patents on medicines when they need to address an urgent public health situation.