People with AIDS and their supporters have won a major victory today in the battle against HIV/AIDS and globalization. Today, 39 drugcompanies dropped their lawsuit against the government of South Africa that hasblocked measure to create sustained access to affordable medication.
ACT UP Philadelphia sends our solidarity and support to South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign ( www.tac.org.za) in this great victory. We are honored, as members of the HealthGAP coalition ( www.globaltreatmentaccess.org) to have been able to work with TAC on this important struggle.
We express our great sorrow to the families and friends of 400,000 South Africans who lost their lives to AIDS over the past three years while this lawsut held up implementation of programs to extend drug access.
We thank our members and supporters who have taken to the streets to show a united stance against this lawsuit. We thank our members and allies this week as they confront and challenge the U.S. officials, corporations and others seeking to restrict drug access throughout the Americas at the FTAA negotiations in Quebec.
We call on the United States to drop the dispute settlement at WTO
against Brazil, a nation that has cut in half its AIDS death rate by courageously
producing and distributing free anti-HIV medication:
(http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,474951,00.html)
And we ask everyone to re-commit themselves to the fight against the global AIDS epidemic, where we must battle not just a virus but greed, discrimination, and ignorance.
Pills costs pennies, greed cost lives.