DVC PROMOTES HIV/AIDS PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN USG AND

UNCLAS VATICAN 003057

SIPDIS


DEPT. FOR EUR/WE: LEVIN; S/GAC for Tobias and Dybul

E.O. 12958 N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM SOCI TBIO VT
SUBJECT: DVC PROMOTES HIV/AIDS PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN USG AND
VATICAN

Ref: a) 03 Vatican 3971 03; b) 03 Vatican 5427; c) Vatican
1389

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Summary
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1.Embassy Vatican's July 27 Digital Video Conference
(DVC) on HIV/AIDS linked key interlocutors from the Holy
See and faith-based organizations with U.S. Global AIDS
Coordinator Randall Tobias. Following the increased focus
on the potential contributions of faith-based groups at the
Bangkok AIDS Conference, the DVC provided an opportunity
for Ambassador Tobias to review implementation of the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and to discuss
areas for expanded cooperation with the Holy See and faith-
based groups active in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.
Tobias also appealed to his interlocutors to help encourage
generic drug producers to submit drugs for approval under
the new expedited approval process to ensure the U.S. is
able to purchase the most cost-effective drugs under the
President's plan. Vatican-based media covered the event
extensively, resulting in positive treatment of USG efforts
to combat HIV/AIDS. End Summary.

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Vatican Agencies, Faith-Based Orgs Convene
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2.Embassy Vatican organized a Digital Video Conference
(DVC) July 27 on HIV/AIDS, linking key HIV/AIDS
interlocutors from the Holy See and faith-based
organizations with U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Randall
Tobias. Vatican agencies represented included the Council
for Health Issues, the Holy See's Foreign Ministry, the
Council for Justice and Peace, Caritas Internationalis, and
the Vatican's primary think tank for ethics. The Vatican-
affiliated Sant'Egidio Community, which has active and
growing HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Mozambique and other
African countries was also represented. On the heels of
the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, where
faith-based organizations were hailed as an untapped
resource in the fight against HIV/AIDS, participants
exchanged ideas on further collaboration between their
organizations and the USG.

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Critical Role for Faith Based Communities
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3.Ambassador Tobias updated participants on the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global
Fund. He emphasized that cooperation with faith-based
agencies was critical to the fight against the AIDS
pandemic. Participants described to Tobias their concerns
over access to USG funding, especially for small community-
based projects in the poorest countries. Council for
Health Issues President Cardinal Lozano Barragan expressed
concern over allocation of funding, noting the importance
of prioritizing funds for those in the most dire straits.
All participants recognized the importance of HIV/AIDS
prevention programs, but discussion focused on how best to
get cost-effective antiretroviral treatment to people in
the world's poorest countries.


4. Cardinal Barragan, who has had previous contacts with
HS and S/GAC staff, announced during the DVC the formation
of a "Good Samaritan" foundation attached to his Council
that would be set up to facilitate requests for HIV/AIDS
funding from Catholic hospitals and health care providers
worldwide. Noting that often these institutions or groups
were too small to wade through the international assistance
bureaucracies, Barragan said the foundation would act as a
clearinghouse that could allow smaller groups to take
advantage of available funding sources. Directors of the
Sant'Egidio Community's antiretroviral treatment program in
sub-Saharan Africa (ref a) shared insights into their work
and its successes, emphasizing the importance of developing
new paradigms for health care that reflect the reality of
poor health infrastructures in many countries.

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Links to Development and Infrastructure
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5.Other participants stressed the need for expanded
development assistance to address poverty, and the need to
expand and improve the health care infrastructure in the
poorest countries. Caritas Internationalis Secretary
General Duncan MacLaren said the fight against HIV/AIDS
could not be separated from the fight against poverty. He

noted that poor nutrition and other ills associated with
poverty combined with AIDS to create more serious
humanitarian disasters. S/GAC Tobias commented that the
U.S. understands these connections and was also addressing
broader issues of poverty and health infrastructures; at
the same time he stressed that the U.S. recognized that the
program had to be sharply focused on HIV/AIDS or it would
become to broad to have an impact.

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Questions on Generic Drugs
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6. Vatican participants also expressed concern about USG
policies on FDA approval for drugs used in overseas
programs. Ambassador Tobias corrected misunderstandings of
U.S. policy, emphasizing that the USG wanted to ensure that
people with HIV/AIDS received safe, effective drugs.
Observing that it would be wrong for the U.S. to give
people in poor countries medicine it would not give to
Americans, he nevertheless made clear that the U.S. was
ready to review and expedite approval of any generic drug
that met the standards to ensure availability of the lowest
cost drugs.

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Positive Media Coverage
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6.Participation of Vatican media in the DVC resulted in
positive coverage of U.S. efforts to combat HIV/AIDS,
countering the sometimes negative reporting that had come
out of Bangkok. Coverage of the event was wide-ranging,
including pieces in Vatican-related web bulletins, the
widely-read "Word From Rome" column in the National
Catholic Reporter, a Vatican radio interview featuring
several participants, and reports by the main Italian news
agency, ANSA. Journalists and others also had an
opportunity to discuss the media's role in the fight
against the AIDS pandemic.

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Comment
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7.Post greatly appreciates Ambassador Tobias's
willingness to participate in this DVC, which served to
deepen our ongoing dialogue and advance consideration
within the Holy See about how best to make use of its
extensive Catholic health networks worldwide to combat
HIV/AIDS. As Ambassador Nicholson told the media, the
event allowed Tobias and Vatican representatives to "get
acquainted" and continue momentum for faith-based
organizations and the U.S. government in the fight against
HIV/AIDS. End comment.

Hardt


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2004VATICA03057 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED