At the conclusion of his first mission to Viet Nam, UNICEF/ UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Jackie Chan called for an end to discrimination and stigma towards children and families infected or affected with HIV/AIDS.

UNAIDS and WHO applaud the announcement made today by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative of two new programmes to help expand AIDS care and treatment to children and to people living in rural areas.

UNAIDS thanks the Commission for the opportunity to address it under Agenda Item 12. UNAIDS also wishes to express its gratitude to the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Yakin Ertürk, who has described so forcefully the many ways that violence against women and girls – both inside and outside marriage – increases their vulnerability to HIV infection and to the impact of AIDS.

The Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (CCO) of UNAIDS met in Moscow on 2 April 2005 and discussed the outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting

Today the co-sponsoring organizations of UNAIDS called for a broad-based response to the AIDS epidemic in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Geneva, 30 March 2005 -- A recent advertising campaign is touting the benefits of vitamin therapy above antiretroviral therapy and claiming that antiretroviral therapy is toxic. These advertisements are wrong and misleading, said the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) today.

Leaders from Norway, UK, Sweden, UNAIDS and the World Bank today praised Mozambique’s efforts to fight AIDS, but called for greater donor coordination and continued leadership from the government to strengthen the national AIDS response.

Today UNAIDS and the governments of the United Kingdom, France the United States will co-host a meeting in London to ensure countries can reverse the spread and impact of AIDS. Entitled ’Making the Money Work’ the meeting will also focus on greater coordination among partners and ensuring money is available and reaches those in the most need quickly and efficiently.

On International Women’s Day, we celebrate women – their strength, their capacity for caring and compassion and the range of achievements they have made in their public, professional, and private lives. It is also a day on which we reflect on some of the difficulties women face in their daily lives – even on Women’s Day.

By 2025, Africa and the world could face three very different scenarios for AIDS. And depending on the actions taken today, up to 43 million HIV infections could be averted over the next 20 years.