Speaking at the 2005 National HIV Conference

Speaking at the 2005 National HIV Conference, the acting director of the CDC announced a new estimate of HIV prevalence in the USA. The CDC had calculated that between 1.039 million and 1.185 million Americans were living with HIV at the end of 2003, of whom 47% were black. One in four HIV-positive people did not know they were infected. Other studies presented at the conference showed that new infections among African Americans were rising, and the total number of new cases was remaining stable at around 40,000 per year.⁷⁶

In the UK at least, 2005 had been hailed as the ‘Year of Africa’ - the year in which real progress would be made towards relieving poverty and disease in that continent. The UK held the presidency of the European Union for the second half of the year, and in July the UK hosted the G8 (Group of Eight) summit of world leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland. Prime Minister Tony Blair promised that the main themes of the summit would be Africa and climate change. The meeting was preceded by massive "Live8" pop concerts around the world, and other events associated with the Make Poverty History campaign.

At the summit the leaders promised to double aid to Africa by 2010, and to cancel the debts of 18 poor countries, but no progress was made in improving trade justice, which many groups considered to be the most important issue. However, the leaders were praised for pledging to ensure as near as possible to universal access to antiretroviral treatment worldwide by 2010.⁷⁷

South Africa's latest antenatal clinic survey showed that 29.5% of pregnant women were HIV positive at the end of 2004. According to the report, the total number of people living with the virus had risen to an estimated 6.29 million - far more than in any other country.⁷⁸

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria in August suspended all grants to Uganda following concerns about possible corruption within the country's health ministry. Uganda's suspension was lifted in November, after an agreement was reached with the ministry over better financial management. Meanwhile the Fund announced its global AIDS programmes had exceeded targets for 2005.^{79 80 81}

By August, nine generic antiretroviral drugs had been approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However several African countries refused to allow the drugs to be imported until they had also been approved by the WHO.⁸² PEPFAR would not begin distributing generic drugs until near the end of the year.⁸³

PEPFAR's approach to HIV prevention (described as "ABC") came under increasingly heavy fire from commentators who said it was motivated by ideology, and was focusing too much on abstinence until marriage while downplaying the role of condoms. Among the fiercest critics were Professor Duff Gillespie, a public health expert and former senior USAID official, who called PEPFAR's policies "outrageous and stupid", and Stephen Lewis, the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, who said the approach to HIV prevention would "cause a significant number of infections which should never have occurred". Two prominent US medical associations, the IDSA and the HIVMA, were also critical. However PEPFAR officials maintained that their approach to HIV prevention was balanced and based on evidence of effectiveness