Feature story

President Obama pledges US support to end AIDS

27 July 2012

Credit: White House

President of the United States of America Barack Obama hosted a reception for the leaders of the AIDS response attending the XIX International AIDS Conference in Washington DC on Thursday 26 July. “The US is in this fight to win this fight—I don't like to lose,” said President Obama. “We share a very special moment—it is the moment when an AIDS-free generation is finally in sight.”

The International AIDS Conference is being held in the United States for the first time in 20 years. This was made possible after President Obama lifted HIV-related travel restrictions allowing people living with HIV to once again enter the United States.

More than 20 000 people are attending the conference. Thanks to advances in science and progress in implementation the general mood of the conference has been largely optimistic. Delegates are focusing on how to meet the challenges in reaching the 2015 global targets on AIDS. The call to end AIDS has resonated across the conference as has the appeal for sustained international support for AIDS.

We share a very special moment—it is the moment when an AIDS-free generation is finally in sight.

President of the United States of America Barack Obama

“President Obama’s pledge to continue United States' support to end AIDS could not have come at a more important time,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. “We owe a big thank you to the American people for their leadership and contribution to the AIDS response—within the United States and abroad. No country has done more. Millions of people would be dead today without American compassion, generosity and solidarity.”

The reception was attended by UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, the President of the International AIDS Society and Co-chair of the conference Elly Katabira, US Co-Chair and Professor of Medicine and Chief of HIV/AIDS Division, University of California, Diane Havlir, US Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby and other prominent AIDS activists, scientists and health workers from the United States and around the world.