Remarks by Ambassador Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis - World AIDS Day Commemoration

The National Theatre of Hungary, December 3, 2012

Good evening.  This is a time for theatre, not speeches.  But because many of you are here to commemorate World AIDS Day, I’ve been asked to say a few words about why our Embassy is supporting tonight’s performance.

The AIDS pandemic was first identified in the United States in 1981.  Since then, over 30 million people, all around the world, have died from this terrible disease.  People who were gay, people who were straight, people who were old and young, babies, grandmothers, artists, accountants, rich and poor.  30 million people.

At the time that Angels in America was first staged in New York in 1991, contracting HIV was a death sentence.  Today, in developed countries, including the United States and in Europe, wide spread access to anti-retroviral therapy allows people to live with the disease.  However even with wide spread access to information, people still continue to contract it in staggering numbers. 

Globally, there are about 34 million people today around the world living with the disease.  Most of them, as you probably know, are in Africa where access to information and anti-retroviral drugs is far more limited.

Last week in Washington DC, Secretary Clinton announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  Secretary Clinton summarizes the vision this way: “We want to bring about the moment when we … do not talk about the fight against AIDS, but instead commemorate the birth of a generation that is free of AIDS.”

Thank you.