WE NEED TO BALANCE OUR OPTIMISM ON AIDS SAYS YANNAKOUDAKIS AHEAD OF IMPORTANT EU SEMINAR ON HIV
Posted, November 30, 2009 @ 00:00
WE NEED TO BALANCE OUR OPTIMISM ON AIDS SAYS YANNAKOUDAKIS AHEAD OF IMPORTANT EU SEMINAR ON HIV
30 November 2009. Tomorrow is World Aids day. Conservative MEP Marina Yannakoudakis will be chairing and co-hosting an EU scientific seminar on the subject in the European Parliament that has been organised by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in partnership with the Swedish National Board of Health.
The seminar will see some of Europe's leading HIV experts gathered together to assess the current state of the epidemic along with the Health Commissioner.
Speaking ahead of the seminar Mrs Yannakoudakis said,
"The fight against AIDS and HIV is an area where there have been some real public health successes. The WHO (World Health Organisation) reported last week that the number of new HIV infections world wide had dropped by 17 per cent in the last eight years.
"But we need to balance our optimism. Even though the epidemic is slowing down there were still two million deaths from AIDS related illnesses last year worldwide. So we need to keep our eye on the ball and continue with our work in this area."