A roundtable meeting to launch the first-ever Global Media AIDS Initiative will be hosted by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan and co-chaired by Joint UN Programs on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Peter Piot and Kaiser Family Foundation President Drew Altman at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday, 15 January 2004.

The meeting will bring together over 20 world media leaders to discuss ways in which the media can contribute to the fight against AIDS and commit themselves to raising greater awareness about HIV/AIDS. Coming few weeks after the December 1 World AIDS Day, the event is aimed at incorporating the media in the global fight against the disease.

Highlighting these in a report, "The Media and HIV/AIDS: Making a difference" the UN scribe said ‘the media have a pivotal role to play in the in the fight against AIDS. It is often said that education is the vaccine against HIV,’ identifying media activities as vital to the education strategy in the HIV campaign.

Media organizations it further stressed have an enormous influence in educating and empowering individuals to avoid contracting HIV. ‘Levels of awareness of and knowledge about HIV/AIDS vary widely around the world. According to recent surveys from over 40 countries more than half of young people most at risk aged 15-24 have serious misconceptions about how the virus is transmitted.’

It is recalled that at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001, governments of the agreed that they would by 2005, ‘ensure that 90 per cent and by 2010, 95 per cent of youth aged between 15 and 24 have information, education, service and life skills that enable them to reduce their vulnerability to HIV infection.’

In line with this resolution, the roundtable will focus on specialized media programs aimed primarily at educating various communities. The media is therefore expected to make HIV/AIDS programs and news a key part of their output and corporate strategy through giving the epidemic prominent news coverage as well as building partnerships with relevant policy makers in order to reverse the progression of the disease.’

Meanwhile, it was gathered that ‘bilateral and multilateral institutions are rapidly increasing their support to the fight against HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries,’ such as Nigeria.

‘The establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the new HIV/AIDS programs of the World Bank, expanding commitments from major donor countries and the work of private philanthropic foundations have seen the total amount of funding to these countries jump from a global total of US $2.8 billion in 2002 to an

estimated $4.7 billion in 2003.’

According to the report, further significant increases are expected in the coming years, though they fall far short of UNAIDS projections of about $10.5 billion annually by 2005, rising to $15 billion annually by 2007 needed to combat the disease.’