Religious organizations have a long history of activism on social justice issues, and you have standing to speak the world about the moral challenges of our time, including AIDS. Your organizations are also among the biggest service providers in the global AIDS response, delivering a substantial share of AIDS related care in many of the most heavily affected countries.

Vice President Li Junru, distinguished guests, dear friends, good evening. I am deeply honoured to address the Central Party School, and warmly thank Vice President Li Junru for inviting me here. It is a moving moment to address current and future leaders of the country.

The goal of universal access represents a unique opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean – that of leading the world in achieving this goal.

So I’ve come here to discuss and to learn how you are tackling the new challenges. How you are tackling also the fight against AIDS in a context where there is still a lot of inequality, inequity in society. And I’ve come also to discuss how Brazil and UNAIDS can intensify our international collaboration - where Brazil is emerging as a country that has a lot to offer – not only on AIDS – to other developing countries and I’m not only thinking of other Lusophone countries.

Today, drug injecting with contaminated equipment is the major HIV transmission mode in many countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and is also driving HIV transmission in North Africa and the Middle East. About 10% of all new infections worldwide stem from injection drug use. If Africa is not included in the statistics this figure rises to 30% of all new infections.

We are here together today because we recognize that this is a decisive point in terms of the AIDS epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

There are strong bonds between UNAIDS and the Alliance. The Alliance is one of our select few collaborating centres, and our ties are long-standing. Even before UNAIDS began, I worked with your founding Executive Director Jeff O’Malley in the early international AIDS conferences, and Bai Bagasao’s association with the Alliance started in Philippines, before she became a UNAIDS staff member.

Thank you for inviting me to this second Asia-Pacific Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS. It is an honor to be here with Prime Minister Shinawatra, the United Nations Secretary General, and all of you.

In the past years, we have seen a significant increase in church related activities in the field of HIV. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, the Anglican Church and the Lutheran World Federation have all developed strategic plans on the fight against AIDS and they are now busy implementing them.

I am particularly happy to be speaking at the Medical Centre because I too was once a medical student. I graduated from medical school in Belgium just over 30 years ago. And thinking about these three decades makes me realize afresh just how profoundly AIDS has affected the world, particularly the worlds of health, medicine and development. Thirty years ago AIDS and HIV were unknown – even these words did not exist! Thirty years ago my professors and fellow students told me that there was no future in specializing in infectious diseases. And yet today, in the space of just these years, AIDS has become the worst epidemic in history and there is serious worldwide concern about the threat posed by infectious diseases.