New Initiative Launched to Anticipate Futu...( NEW YORK Jan. 28 /- Government bu...),Health

NEW YORK, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Government, business, civic and public health leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland announced the creation of aids2031, a global initiative dedicated to taking a critical look at what we need to do now in order to change the face of AIDS by 2031. The year 2031 will mark 50 years since AIDS was first reported.

According to Stefano Bertozzi, chairperson of the aids2031 steering committee and director of health economics and evaluation for the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the focus of aids2031 is greatly needed.

"Despite more than a quarter century of experience, and some real results, HIV continues to spread and to destabilize whole sections of the globe. Short term solutions have clearly not worked," said Bertozzi. "It is now time for those in positions of influence to take a longer-term more comprehensive view of what AIDS is doing not only to global health, but also to international politics, economics and our hopes for the future."

aids2031 brings together economists, epidemiologists, social and political scientists, and communication experts to generate new thinking about AIDS. "We are committed to a simple premise: what works best to generate short-term results is often not the best way to reverse the epidemic in the long run," says Bertozzi. "We are looking at everything with new lenses and fresh perspectives."

According to Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, it is time to shift today's global AIDS response from primarily a short-term crisis management approach to include planning for a long-term sustained response. "While global warming is moving from being a long-wave to short-wave phenomenon, we are seeing AIDS move from being a short-term emergency to becoming a long-wave phenomenon," says Piot. "We must look at what we can do differently now in order to influence the future face of AIDS."

"For me, the critical question
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