Hope springs from UN conference

One of the participants at the UN’s special session in June was an AIDS-conference veteran who believes that too few of the previous international gatherings have led to action. Michael H. Merson, M.D., dean of public health at Yale and a former director of the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS, said, “I watched leader after leader sign a declaration in Paris [in 1994] and go home, and nothing changed.” This time, however, he saw reason for hope. “What is different now is that you have a conference being held at the UN and you have a secretary-general providing leadership, putting himself in charge of mobilizing an international effort. You have many more years of experience and excellent examples of success with prevention. And you have an opportunity to offer treatment to millions of persons infected with the virus. We need to see this as a new beginning, no doubt the best chance we have ever had to control this devastating pandemic.”