A call to arms on AIDS

Yale students who previously campaigned for price and patent relief for an AIDS drug developed here turned their attention this spring to the United Nations General Assembly’s Special Session on HIV/AIDS. The students called on the United States to contribute up to a quarter of the $7 to $10 billion sought by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a Global Fund for HIV/AIDS. The United States has offered $200 million. “If that’s how much we give, the fund will fail,” said medical student Kyeen Mesesan, one of the authors of a petition circulated by students of medicine, public health, divinity and law. Signed by more than 150 faculty members and students, the petition asked President Bush to take the lead not only in funding, but in seeking a strengthened declaration of principles that links treatment and prevention and affirms respect for human rights as “a necessary part of the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.”