French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has agreed to work with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to serve as a Global Ambassador for the protection of mothers and children against AIDS, the Global Fund announced on December 1 2008, World AIDS Day.

Bruni-Sarkozy will act, in her personal capacity, as a voice on the global stage for the many mothers and children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, especially drawing attention to the need to give pregnant women and their children the means to prevent HIV infection and to fight the disease, the Global Fund said in a statement.

The statement quoted Dr Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund, as saying: "As an ambassador for this cause, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has chosen a major priority for prevention and access to treatment for scale-up of much needed health services.  She will be giving a strong voice for the needs of a group who often are not heard on their own."

According to the 2008 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, the fight against AIDS is beginning to see strong success in some areas, such as providing treatment for those living with HIV, but frustratingly little progress has been made in preventing transmission of HIV from mothers to their children, and in assisting women protecting themselves from HIV infection, the statement said.

Women are more physiologically and socially vulnerable to infection, suffering disproportionally from the epidemic's negative effects. 

"As the primary caregivers in Africa and other regions, women have seen their household and community burdens grow as a result of HIV, often compromising their health and their ability to generate income.  Children are also among the most vulnerable groups, putting them at risk physically, emotionally and economically."

The Global Fund said that it was supporting AIDS programs around the world which aim to reduce the burden of HIV/AIDS on mothers and children with activities like counselling and testing, prevention-of mother-to-child transmission, providing orphans and vulnerable children with basic care and support and providing treatment to people in need of it. 

"The advocacy of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will lead to greater attention on the need to scale up such work worldwide."

The Global Fund said that two million people living with HIV had been reached with lifesaving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through AIDS programmes that it supported, a 43 per cent increase over results reported a year ago. 

The organisation also reported progress in the fight against tuberculosis with more than 4.6 million people on effective TB drugs treatment.

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among HIV-infected people; the World Health Organisation estimates that TB accounts for up to a third of AIDS deaths worldwide.

Global Fund-supported malaria programs have now distributed a cumulative total of 70 million insecticide-treated bed nets delivered to families at risk of contracting the disease. This represents a 52 per cent increase over the quantity of 46 million nets which had been delivered one year ago.

In a separate statement on World AIDS Day, the European Commission called for a focus on prevention and HIV testing.
 
"Twenty-five years after HIV was first isolated by researchers, there is still no cure or vaccine against AIDS. It is estimated that today, more than 30 million people worldwide live with HIV/AIDS, and about two million people die every year," the EC said.

Over two thirds of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Europe, more than 700 000 people are living with HIV/AIDS with 30 000 new infections reported annually.

"We need to underline the importance of the threat posed to the world by HIV and not to forget that HIV/AIDS is still a major health problem today", EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said.

"We must continue to improve the knowledge, awareness and information on HIV/AIDS, especially among young people and high risk groups. As long as there is no cure for AIDS, prevention remains the best weapon to combat HIV/AIDS," Vassiliou said.

Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel said that HIV/AIDS is one of the main issues preventing developing countries being lifted out of poverty.

"We still need to do much more in raising awareness of HIV and how to prevent its transmission across the developing world. We must all work harder to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halting the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. There's no time to lose," Michel said.

Vassiliou was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech on December 1 2008 on HIV/AIDS at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus and to visit an HIV/AIDS Clinic at Larnaca General Hospital.

"The Commissioner will call for a stronger focus on HIV/AIDS prevention activities targeted at young people," the EC said.

"Many of today's youth missed the successful awareness and prevention campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s and therefore do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the disease to protect themselves from contracting it," the EC statement said.

Vassiliou would also highlight the importance of early diagnosis through HIV testing.

An estimated 30 per cent of people infected do not know their HIV status. "Late diagnosis results in late treatment, and consequently in a lower quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS. However, people need to be reassured that knowing their HIV status will help them in the long run to make important decisions in their lives and access treatment early."

The EC said that Michel was in Doha at the UN conference on Financing for Development "where Europe is taking the lead on efforts to secure more funding for development".

Much of this financing goes towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) which includes tackling HIV/AIDS as a priority.

The EC has contributed a total of 622 million euro over the period 2002-2007 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS and has pledged a further 300 million euro for the period 2008-2010.

The EU and the EC together contributed 55 per cent (2003-2006) of the total contributions to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.