Constituents Lobby John Leech MP over Worldwide Aids Crisis

12.00.00am GMT Fri 8th Dec 2006

John Leech MP & Lord Mayor Cllr David Sandiford Attend Churches Together Fair Trade Event in Didsbury

South Manchester residents marked World AIDS Day this year by writing to Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington, John Leech, to urge him to press the Government to act over the growing HIV/AIDS crisis.

A recent UN report published in November 2005 said that 40.3m people are living with HIV worldwide, of whom 25.8m are living in Sub-Saharan Africa; 5m people have been infected this year; and 3m people have died of Aids-related illnesses.

This year at the G8 Summit, leaders of the developed world promised AIDS treatment for all who need it by 2010. But campaigners are worried by signs that this promise will be broken

On Saturday, 2nd December, the day after World Aids Day, John Leech MP attended a Fair Trade event at the Emmanuel Church in Didsbury where he met with local representatives of the "Stop Aids Campaign". During the event over fifty local people signed pill-shaped postcards addressed to John urging him to press the government to ensure that the promises are kept so that AIDS treatments become available for all by 2010.

John Leech MP said:

"The Churches Together Fair Trade event in Didsbury was a great event and demonstrated that people in South Manchester are concerned over international development and health issues."

"The global AIDS epidemic is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. It seriously undermines efforts to eradicate poverty and its effects in the least developed countries."

"I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and to the Secretary of State for International Development to keep the pressure on to change trade rules which currently make AIDS treatments unaffordable for many of those in the developing world."

John Leech MP has also signed a parliamentary motion, Early Day Motion (EDM) 26 "HIV Prevention", which highlights the scale of the worldwide AIDS epidemic and calls on the government to influence the international community to act on HIV and AIDS.

Early Day Motion 26: HIV PREVENTION 15.11.2006

That this House notes that levels of HIV infection are rising globally and over 38 million people worldwide are living with HIV, with women in developing countries disproportionately affected; acknowledges that existing HIV prevention methods help to reduce the risk of HIV transmission and acquisition and should be made available urgently to those who need them, but that existing prevention methods are not enough, particularly for women, due to a combination of biological, social and cultural factors; notes that new prevention technologies such as microbicides and vaccines are designed to complement current prevention efforts and could offer protection from HIV and increase the effectiveness of HIV prevention efforts, and will ultimately benefit women and men all over the world, in the UK as well as countries with a high HIV prevalence; acknowledges that progress has been made in the search for new prevention technologies such as microbicides and vaccines but that challenges remain; welcomes the UK's contribution to the research and development of microbicides and vaccines; and calls upon the Government to use its influence to urge the international community to recognise the importance of investing in new technologies as a vital part of the comprehensive response required to tackle effectively HIV and AIDS.