Everyday 8,400 people die of AIDS. These aren’t just adults, they’re children and more often, babies who are born contracted with the virus. Life expectancy is short and even the smallest of illness can kill you. With most cases being in impoverished nations (predominantly located in Africa and now Asia), healthcare and treatment is hard to find and now very expensive.

BACKGROUND AND ISSUES
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) introduced in 2003 an agreement entitled TRIPs (Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights), which forced the patenting of many products, including the treatment for AIDS, and therefore no longer allowing the production of cheap generic drugs. This meant that millions of people lost the opportunity to access affordable drugs for the treatment of AIDS as patenting the drugs severely increased their cost. At the G8 Summit in 2005, the UN signed up to commit to provided ‘treatment for all’ AIDS patients by 2010. However, little progress has been made in this area, and out of the 40 million people who have AIDS, only 1 million people get treatment.

OUR AIMS
The National People & Planet campaign aimed to urge the government to:
Ensure that AIDS treatment remains at the top of the UK and International agendas.
Achieve the target of treatment for all by 2010
Support the manufacture and supply of generic AIDS drugs in developing nations
Provide sustainable and substantial funding for AIDS treatment through aid to the Global Fund.

Although People and Planet are no longer running the Treat AIDS now campaign, we hope to work with other societies and the union on World AIDS day, which is on December 1st this year. Any other input is welcome!