NSW: Australia a world leader on AIDS: Wooldridge

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-2000
NSW: Australia a world leader on AIDS: Wooldridge

SYDNEY, Dec 1 AAP - Australia's apolitical approach to AIDS had made the country a
world leader in treating the disease, federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said
today.

"We're regarded as having one of the best responses in the world," Dr Wooldridge told
a luncheon in Sydney on World AIDS Day.

"We didn't make it a party political issue and that provides for a stable policy."

AIDS first came to public prominence in the early 1980s and was considered primarily
a disease contracted by gay men.

Nearly 20 years on it is ravaging Africa to such an extent that South Africa's GDP
in 2010 is expected to suffer by 17 per cent, Dr Wooldridge said.

So far 22 million people have died worldwide from AIDS and in 2004 the disease will
have claimed more lives than influenza or bubonic plague.

"The international community was very slow to respond to HIV. The time to respond was
the mid-1980s," he said.

"They're now trying to catch up. There are a few bright spots - Uganda and Tanzania
have shown you can reduce the rate of HIV.

"But too many governments internationally have their heads in the sand and the result
of that is people are going to die."

AAP ij/jo/apm

KEYWORD: AIDS WOOLDRIDGE

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