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Retiring World Bank chief admits AIDS sluggishness

    JOHANNESBURG

    Outgoing World Bank chief James Wolfensohn this week admitted to being "late" in focusing on the dangerous potential of HIV/AIDS while he was president of the bank.

    Despite an abundance of compliments during a special meeting, held to pay tribute to him, Wolfensohn said he was disappointed in his failure to convince world leaders to take action against AIDS more quickly.

    "I think we were late; I knew about AIDS a long time ago. Somehow the penny hadn't dropped that this was something that was at the whole core of human development ... this was a human tragedy, and it could be averted and it could be treated," Agence France-Presse quoted Wolfensohn as saying.

    Noting that even the bank was not where it should be on the question of AIDS, Wolfensohn said the institution still had much work to do.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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