Thousands of researchers, activists and donors have opened a global

AIDS conference in South Africa, to share ideas about the best ways to

treat and prevent the disease.

The five-day conference has drawn more than 18,000 attendees,

including actress Charlize Theron, Britain’s Prince Harry and U.N.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In a speech at the opening of the conference in Durban, Theron said it

is sad that the world has hosted 21 international AIDS conferences

without finding a cure for the epidemic. She decried social

inequalities which she said are driving the spread of the disease.

“We value men more than women, straight love more than gay love, white

skin more than black skin, the rich more than the poor, and adults

more than the adolescents,” she said.

Ban told reporters Monday that the gains the world has made against

AIDS are “inadequate and fragile.” He noted that more than half the

people around the world infected with HIV have no access to treatment,

about 20 million people.

Retired South African bishop and social rights activist Desmond Tutu

said in a video massage delivered at the conference that the poor are

the hardest hit by HIV /AIDS.

“Catastrophe has an unholy relationship to poverty, to injustice and to discrimination, for the poor, for those who have been excluded,” he said.

Thousands of activists marched near the conference venue Monday to

demand more funding to fight the disease. The United Nations recently

announced that it wants to end AIDS by 2030, but activists say more

funding is needed.

“We have set a goal to end AIDS by 2030. And there are four more

international aids conferences between now and then. They must be our

last,” Theron said.

The first time the international AIDS conference was held in Durban,

South Africa in 2000, then-President Thabo Mbeki shocked the world by

questioning whether HIV really causes AIDS. Now, South Africa says it

has the world’s largest treatment program for HIV.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said in a speech on the eve of

the conference opening, “If we fail to act, all the hard-earned gains

made in HIV in sub-Saharan Africa over the last 15 years could be

reversed.”

Thuso Khumalo contributed to this report from Durban, South Africa.
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