Delegates to the Sixth International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Pacific began the process of sharing regional and local experiences in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The main theme of the day was "Treatment and Care" of HIV-positive people. Though governments in the region are stepping up HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns, there is concern among delegates and organizations over the lack of funding and political support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

"Care and treatment are part and parcel of prevention," said Adeeba Kamarulzaman, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Malaysia. "Governments must make budgetary allocations for effective prevention and treatment programs.

At the opening plenary session of the ICAAP speakers discussed different aspects of treatment and care for AIDS patients. Kamarulzaman spoke about the challenges in managing opportunistic infection in developing countries, with specific reference to Malaysia. As patients develop AIDS their immune systems deteriorate leaving them open to secondary infections like pneumonia--these are referred to as opportunistic infections.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Kamarulzaman said, health care givers miss the opportunity to prophylax, or treat, patients before they develop these symptoms. Persons with HIV/AIDS only present themselves after they have already developed AIDS.

Lack of awareness about the disease, fear of disclosure and lack of community-based support were some of the reasons she cited for infected individuals not seeking out medical help.

Others spoke out about the need for funding and political commitment for treatment for HIV-positive people.

"It's our right to get treatment," said Celina D'Costa, Vice President of the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and noted Indian AIDS activist. "Just because we have HIV it's not that we're aliens. The matter is of the poor and the rich. Those who have money get treatment, those who are poor have to die."

Economic factors are very important in obtaining treatment for HIV-positive people. Antiretroviral drug therapies are extremely expensive and beyond the financial reach of most infected people in the developing world. Current trade restrictions do not allow cheaper generic AIDS drugs to be sold to developing countries--though South Africa won a court case earlier this year allowing it to import cheaper drugs even though pharmaceutical companies with patents were operating and selling domestically.

According to Dr. Mary Moran of Medecins Sans Frontieres, the World Trade Organization is expected to issue a declaration to clarify the position of developing countries vis-a-vis AIDS drugs. After the victory in South Africa, she said, the declaration could be expected to be positive.

Professor Vella, President of the International AIDS Society, estimated the cost of fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing nations to be between seven and nine billion US dollars. "This cost should be met by the rich countries, the countries of the 'North'," he said.

According to Vella it is in the interest of developed countries to make globalization fair and to help combat HIV/AIDS in the developing world. This sentiment may not be shared by pharmaceutical companies in the West, which presently own patents on all antiretroviral drugs.

The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and Switzerland are sponsoring another declaration that outlines the arguments of transnational pharmaceutical companies ands calls for a compromise. The WTO Ministerial meeting, where this issue will be settled, will take place in earlier November in Qatar.

During the lunch break delegates, toting the distinctive yellow conference satchels, discussed the morning sessions and exchanged information on AIDS programs in their respective countries. More than 3,000 delegates from the region have registered for the conference, though some, especially delegates and speakers from the United States, chose not to attend following the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC.

The fall-out from the attacks worried some attendees of the congress.

At a symposium on the declaration of the United Nations Special Session for AIDS, Ambassador Penny Wensley of Australia addressed this concern.

"There is a real risk that we will lose the momentum we gathered at the special session," she said. "We have to be able to deal with the war on terrorism and still maintain the war against AIDS."

With terrorism now preeminent on the political agendas of many countries, delegates are worried that HIV/AIDS will not be given the attention and support it requires.

"The tragedy of September 11 may have an impact on the dedication of governments towards HIV/AIDS," said Vella. "I hope it won't become a second, or a third priority."

The conference forged ahead, however, with over 40 plenary sessions, sub sessions and workshops taking place on Saturday. Prevention and strategies to stop transmission will be the main themes on Sunday, though sub-sessions will continue on all four themes including Treatment and Care, Gender and Sexuality and Socio-economic Determinants of HIV/AIDS.