BGIA

Addressing the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared, "For there to be any hope of success in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the world must join together in a great global alliance." Earlier, in September 1995, US President Bill Clinton's Committee on International Science, Engineering, and Technology designated infectious disease as a threat to national security. By the turn of the century it seemed possible that years of neglecting the surging HIV pandemic and other lethal infectious diseases might be reversed. Large-scale initiatives from multilateral agencies, deep-pocketed foundations, and the US government infused hope into an area that has historically been underfunded and overshadowed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] But today the optimism is dangerously close to slipping away. Now that real money is on the table, the entire global health effort seems to be descending into bureaucratic and economic quicksand ...