The United States must lead the fight against AIDS with the same commitment it shows to financing the battles against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday.
“We hear a lot about weapons of mass destruction. We hear a lot about terrorism, and we are worried about weapons of mass destruction because of their potential to kill thousands of people,” Annan said in an interview with the BBC.
“Here we have an epidemic that is killing millions. What is the response?” Annan said, calling for the United States to lead the world in devoting more funds to fighting the killer disease.
The world puts substantial sums of money into fighting terrorism and containing weapons of mass destruction to protect people, he said. “And here we know (about AIDS), it’s not that we don’t know, we read about it, we see it around us -- where’s the international solidarity?”
