[Ip-health] Sign-on: include Infectious Diseases in 2008 G8 agenda

[Meredy Throop]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--
--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Dear Colleagues,

We request your support in urging Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to
include infectious diseases on the 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido-Toyako
agenda. Nearly eight years have passed since Japan convened the
Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit, where leaders set targets to reduce by 25
percent the number of those infected with HIV worldwide, and cut in half
the numbers of those who become sick with and die from TB and malaria by
2010. Despite the promises made, 16,000 people are still dying from
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria every year, and over 75% of PLWHA,
including over 90% of children, are not receiving the HIV treatment they
need to survive. Without dramatically scaled-up commitments and
implementation of promises, there is no chance that G8 promises to reach
the Okinawa targets or provide Universal Access to AIDS treatment by
2010 will be met.

Although Climate Change and Africa have surfaced as key priorities, the
failure to include infectious diseases on the G8 agenda will pose an
increasing threat to global health and human security, with particular
ramifications for people living throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Millions
of lives may be lost if wealthy nations fail to live up to their
promises and provide financial resources needed to reverse the scourge
of these diseases at the upcoming G8 Summit; please join us in assuring
that Japan prioritizes infectious diseases at the 2008 G8 Summit
Hokkaido-Toyako.

SIGN-ON INSTRUCTIONS:

To sign on, please send your name, organization and country to Meredy
Throop at RESULTS Educational Fund (mthroop@results.org) by close of
business WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.

Please consider circulating the sign-on letter, as more organizational
endorsement will strengthen our voice in demanding that infectious
diseases be incorporated into the 2008 G8 agenda. Our apologies for the
urgent nature of this request, but we have a small window of time to
influence this process.

Thank you in advance for considering this request and for your support.

Sincerely,

RESULTS Educational Fund

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - -
September 11, 2007
Mr. Shinzo Abe
Prime Minister
Office of Prime Minister
2-3-1, Nagata-cyo, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN

Dear Prime Minister Abe,
We, the undersigned organizations, driven to end the social and economic
scourges of AIDS, TB, and Malaria call upon you, as Prime Minister of
Japan, to continue exercising Japan's critical global leadership by
ensuring that tackling these major infectious diseases is center stage
at the 2008 Hokkaido-Toyako G8 Summit.
Japan asserted great leadership in 2000 at the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit
by forging historic commitments: to reduce the number of
HIV/AIDS-infected people by 25 per cent; TB deaths and prevalence of the
disease by 50 per cent; and the burden of disease associated with
malaria by 50 per cent-all by 2010. At the same Kyushu-Okinawa Summit,
Japan also set the precedent of including African leaders at the G8
Summit, where they discussed the health and development challenges faced
by the continent. One major outcome from the Summit was the creation of
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a critical
financing mechanism providing much needed resources to countries in
their fight against these infectious diseases.
 While we applaud Japan's important role in procuring such political
momentum and tangible resources, exemplified by Japan's US$500 million
pledge to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
(GFATM) in 2005, it is a bitter truth that G8 nations on the whole fall
short of their Okinawa promises. In an age of unprecedented global
wealth, resources allocated to fighting TB, HIV/AIDS, and malaria remain
woefully insufficient.
Japan and other G8 nations made further commitments at the G8 Summit in
July 2005 to "develop and implement a package for comprehensive HIV
prevention, treatment and care, with the aim of as close as possible to
universal access to treatment for all people who need it by 2010." Three
million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in the last year alone,
and at the current rate of progress, less than half of all people in
need of vital life-saving treatments will be receiving them by 2010. The
deadly synergy between HIV/AIDS and TB and the explosion of extensively
drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) increasingly threaten to roll back
progress made and billions invested in the fight against AIDS and TB.
Particularly in southern Africa - an epicenter of the AIDS pandemic and
now the site of a growing XDR-TB disaster - lives saved by AIDS program
scale-up continue to become casualties of an XDR-TB epidemic. Without
sufficient financial commitment from G8 countries, neither the Okinawa
promises nor the promise of Universal Access can be kept. Urgent action
is needed immediately.
Japan has a powerful chance in 2008 to turn the tide on economic and
human devastation by providing leadership on this as it had done in 2000
and placing urgent and bold action on infectious diseases atop the
Hokkaido-Toyako agenda. We urge you to make every effort to ensure that
this happens.

Sincerely,

<civil society endorsements here>


Cc:
Mr. Nobutaka Machimura, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Mr. Itsunori Onodera, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs
Mr. Fukushiro Nukaga, Minister for Finance
Mr. Otohiko Endo, Vice Minister for Finance
Mr. Yoichi Masuzoe, Minister for Health, Labour and Welfare
Mr. Wataru Ito, Parliamentary Secretary of Health, Labour and Welfare


    <<G8 Japan - Infectious Diseases - civil society letter.doc>>


Meredy Throop | Global Campaigns Associate
RESULTS Educational Fund | 750 First Street NE, Suite 1040
Washington, DC 20009 | phone: 202-783-7100 ext.126
mobile: 307-349-2302 | fax: 202-783-2818 | www.results.org

~RESULTS: creating the public
<http://www.results.org/website/navdispatch.asp?id=650>  and political
will <http://www.results.org/website/navdispatch.asp?id=32>
to end hunger and the worst aspects of poverty~




--
Content-Description: G8 Japan - Infectious Diseases - civil society letter.doc

[ G8 Japan - Infectious Diseases - civil society letter.doc of type application/msword deleted ]