ROME (Zenit.org) – With the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS being marked last month, a Rome conference on the disease concluded with several appeals. Among them: more solidarity from rich countries, responsible use of sexuality, and greater closeness to AIDS victims stigmatised by society.
The conference was timely, as it was 5 June, 1981 – 30 years ago – that Los Angeles first reported an unusual form of pneumonia that turned out to be AIDS. Since then, 25 million people have died from the disease and another 34 million are infected, but now the number of people killed by AIDS is going down.
The Church, meanwhile, continues to be a global leader in the battle against AIDS. Its 117,000 health organisations range from meager centres in jungles to ultramodern polyclinics in large cities.
Stefano Vella, research director for the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, also advocated a holistic perspective.
“The future lies in the integration of treatments,” he said. “It is necessary to think of health in global terms. At the base must be the will to combat the inequality of the treatments.”
Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), stated that there are “10 million people waiting for treatment, and their lives hang on a thread.” He added that it “isn’t the moment for self-complacency.” The director spoke of an “improvement in social practices and the role of values and of the family,” saying that youth are responsible for this change, as they “negotiate their sexuality in a responsible way.” Regarding the use of condoms in AIDS prevention, Sidibe told conference participants that he welcomed Benedict XVI’s comments in his recent book-length interview, Light of the World. The Pope had said that the use of a condom by a male prostitute to prevent his partner’s infection could be a first step toward moral responsibility.
“This is very important,” he said. “This has helped me to understand his position better and has opened up a new space for dialogue.”
Although a clarification by the Vatican stated that Church teaching on condoms hasn’t been changed, many who promote the use of condoms continue to view the Pontiff’s comments as favourable. The Pope’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone recalled Blessed John Paul II’s wish for the 1999 conference on The Catholic Church and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS, where he encouraged “everybody to work together, beginning with the resources of their own skills and responsibilities, in taking care of those who suffer from this disease, employing the resources of science to alleviate their suffering.”