West criticised on slow AIDS response

The UN has accused rich Western countries of "criminal negligence" for their slow rescue of HIV/AIDS-afflicted countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In a recent statement to the Southern African Board of Health Providers, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Steven Lewis, said it was "morally indefensible" that these countries had been so slow to respond. He said while the West would have spent US $750 billion by the time the Iraq invasion and reconstruction was over, they had not been able to find a fraction of that to save millions of Africans dying from AIDS-related illnesses. However, Lewis was hopeful that the start of a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan in South Africa could have an "electric effect on the rest of the African continent" and said the announcement could come soon.