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Drop in delegates' toll in plane disaster:
AIDS conference spared the worst
A global AIDS summit was in shock Saturday at the loss of colleagues
in the Malaysia Airlines disaster over Ukraine, but spirits were lifted
when the number who died was put at six, far fewer than feared.
Reports on Friday said as many as 100 passengers on the plane were en
route to the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne when it
went down in a rebel-held part of the country on Thursday, killing all
298 on board. But International AIDS Society president Francoise
Barre-Sinoussi said just six attendees were confirmed dead.ÓThe number
that we have confirmed through our contacts with authorities in
Australia, in Malaysia, and Dutch authorities as well is six people. It
may be a little bit more, but not the numbers that have been announced,"
she said. Those killed include prominent Dutchman Joep Lange, a pioneer
of cheap anti-retrovirals for the poor who had been involved in HIV
research and treatment since 1983.
Officials said Pim de Kuijer from STOPAIDSNOW was also on board,
along with Lucie van Mens, director of AIDS Action Europe and her
colleague Maria Adriana de Schutter. World Health Organization official
Glenn Thomas and Jacqueline van Tongeren from the Amsterdam Institute
for Global Health and Development also died in the crash. Flight MH17
from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which US officials believe was hit by a
surface-to-air missile, was due to connect with another flight to
Melbourne. Despite the death toll not being as bad as feared, the sense
of loss was palpable as attendees gathered at the Melbourne Convention
Centre on the eve of the high-powered meeting, the largest of its kind
in the world.
"The extent of our loss is hard to comprehend and express,"
Barre-Sinoussi, a Nobel prize winner, said ahead of the summit that
opens on Sunday. ÓOur colleagues were travelling because of their
dedication to bringing an end to AIDS.ÓWe will honour their commitment
and keep them in our hearts as we begin our programme on Sunday. This
tragedy is probably a good sign to work again together and to continue
as a tribute for our colleagues."
The loss of Lange was felt particularly hard by Barre-Sinoussi. "Joep
was not only a great researcher, a great champion of the fight against
HIV for many years, he was also a wonderful human being," she said.
"He was firmly believing that a cure for HIV was possible, as we all
do, and was one of the first supporters of the idea of integrating
social science with the search for a cure.ÓOfficials from the
PharmAccess Foundation, which Lange launched in 2000 to facilitate
access to treatment for HIV and AIDS patients across Africa, said his
death was "a massive loss".Some 12,000 participants are due to take part
in the conference, including former US president Bill Clinton, who told
CNN that those who died were "martyrs".ÓThinking about those people,
knocked out of the sky, it's pretty tough," he said, adding that "they
were doing so much good".ÓThose people are really, in a way, martyrs to
the cause that we are going to Australia to talk about."
Clinton is due to give an address in Melbourne on Wednesday. Held
every two years, the International AIDS Conference is a forum for
campaigners to highlight developments in fighting the disease and
discuss financing problems. It is this year also expected to channel
anger about laws in Africa that stigmatise homosexuality and in the
former Soviet Union that punish intravenous drug users a crackdown now
extended to Russian-annexed Crimea. Some 35 million people live with
HIV, although global AIDS-related deaths and new infections have fallen
by more than a third in a decade, raising hopes of beating the killer
disease by 2030.
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