Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the 18th annual International AIDS Conference today in Vienna, Austria, noting that the United States is the largest contributor to global AIDS programs. The conference reportedly attracted more than 25,000 attendees from around the world. The U.S. will host the conference in Washington, DC in 2012.
Greetings and thank you for your efforts in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Together, we have mounted one of the greatest public health responses in history. Through your tireless efforts, we have begun to halt and reverse the epidemic, and millions of lives have been saved. The United States, working through PEPFAR and the Global Fund, is the largest contributor to global AIDS programs. And we are committed to leading the fight against HIV/AIDS as we seek a sustainable, effective, and broad response to the global burden of disease.
PEPFAR is the cornerstone of our Global Health Initiative and offers support to countries in meeting the broad health needs of their people. We are focused on reducing the impact on families and communities when the virus claims women of reproductive age, passes from mother to child, or is spread through gender-based violence. And we believe access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care should be a universal, shared responsibility, because health is a human right.
As we push to expand access to these resources, the United States will continue to work with our partner countries and with civil society to help empower citizens to lead the charge in their own countries. We look forward to hosting you at the 2012 conference in Washington, D.C. Together, we will continue this important work. Thank you very much.
For more on the International AIDS Conference, visit www.aids2010.org/.
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