Labour MPs mark World AIDS day on 1st December

Shadow Environment Secretary and Wakefield MP Mary Creagh met Harriet Harman, the Shadow International Development Secretary this week to discuss progress in the global fight against HIV and AIDS.

Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1st, Mary and Harriet agreed to keep the pressure on the government to continue the leadership the Labour Government provided in the global fight to tackle HIV and AIDS.

Mary said: “Many people in Wakefield care a great deal about tackling HIV and AIDS and regularly contact me about it. It was important to have the opportunity to meet with Harriet this week and raise the concerns of my constituents with her. I am proud of Labour’s leadership whilst in government to tackle this global scourge and I urged Harriet to make sure that she does everything she can to ensure the Coalition Government continues our work.

“With 33 million people still living with HIV worldwide, action now is vital if we are to make a real difference. I am disappointed that to date the government have failed to make clear its contribution to the Global Fund which is so important in fighting HIV and AIDS. No one country can hope to tackle the spread of HIV and AIDS alone - that is why international leadership is more important than ever”

Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, Labour’s Shadow International Development Secretary said:“Despite the progress we have seen, around the world millions of people are living with HIV and more than a million people still die from AIDS-related illnesses every year. “The progress made is encouraging and shows that we can make a real impact but we have to keep the momentum up to raise awareness, ensure universal access to treatment and to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. One vital way the government must do that is to continue the UK’s strong support for the Global Fund to fight Aids Tuberculosis and Malaria which has already proved very effective”

"In government, Labour made sure that the UK was at the centre of efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS and we are calling on the new government to continue that leadership”

“I was pleased to have the chance to discuss what Labour can do to drive forward those efforts with Mary given her track record as such a tireless campaigner on global poverty and HIV and AIDS, as well as a strong voice for Wakefield.

Notes to Eds

1. Data from the 2010 UNAIDS Report on the global AIDS epidemic shows that an estimated 2.6 million people became newly infected with HIV, nearly 20% fewer than the 3.1 million [2.9 million–3.4 million] people infected in 1999.

2. In 2009, 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses, nearly one-fifth lower than the 2.1 million people who died in 2004.

3. At the end of 2009, 33.3 million [31.4 million–35.3 million] people were estimated to be living with HIV, up slightly from 32.8 million1 [30.9 million–34.7 million] in 2008. This is in large part due to more people living longer as access to antiretroviral therapy increases.

4. The Global Fund is the world’s largest global health financier, providing two-thirds of all international financing to fight malaria and tuberculosis, as well as one-quarter of all financing to fight HIV/AIDS, since 2002.  The Global Fund has approved more than $19 billion in 144 countries to combat these three diseases.  

5. In less than a decade, the Global Fund has saved 5.7 million lives.  They have done this by providing the funding for the purchase and distribution of:

life-saving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS for 2.8 million people

tuberculosis treatments for 7 million people

more than 122 million bednets to prevent malaria infections

treatment to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV to more than 930,000 HIV-positive pregnant women