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"The bottom line is, the people who are dying from AIDS don't matter in this world." 1
Remember HIV/AIDS? This theme issue of the BMJ challenges the global community to overcome its amnesia and fatigue, mobilise its ample collective resources, and make 2002 the turning point in tackling HIV.
The theme that dominates these pages is the need for justice. In his Theory of Justice , John Rawls, perhaps the most important moral philosopher of the 20th century, argued that justice is required when there is a struggle for scarce resources and when life is brief. 2 Both of these conditions are met in those countries devastated by HIV. Authors in this week's BMJ demand actions that are based on justice: the distribution of antiretroviral drugs to the world's poorest people; the empowerment of women; the urgent search for an HIV vaccine; and the care and education of children orphaned by AIDS.
Wealthy countries must take the lead in acting justly. Their colonisation of the regions now struggling with rising HIV rates, like India and Africa, left behind a legacy of exploitation and oppression and an ongoing power imbalance between rich and poor countries. 3 4 Part of this imbalance is economic. The aggregate national income of wealthy countries recently surpassed $21 trillion annually. These countries quickly came up with astounding sums of money for an antiterrorism campaign, so they could surely find the $7-10 billion needed annually to fight HIV. 5
The creation of the new global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria sent a message that the world does care about HIV/AIDS. But ever since its proposal by Kofi Annan last...