NEW YORK (AP) -- The Sept. 11 attacks and the ensuing war on terrorism have diverted attention and resources from another global battle, the campaign against AIDS, just as its front-line combatants were savoring a rare stretch of good news.
Since the attacks, donations to the United Nations' Global Fund to Fight AIDS have slowed sharply. The U.S. government, a crucial source of support, has dismayed AIDS activists with a contribution far below their expectations.
And yet, despite the distractions of war in Afghanistan and an economic slowdown, there is long-term optimism on the eve of Saturday's World AIDS Day events. Advocacy groups hope the United States will emerge from the current turmoil with a broader international outlook, more eager than ever to work alongside poorer nations against scourges such as AIDS.
"The Bush administration, I hope, will reach the point where they want to show the world they're not so obsessed with Afghanistan and terrorism that everything else falls off the table," said Stephen Lewis, the United Nations' special envoy for AIDS in Africa.
"AIDS, alas, is the perfect vehicle for that," he said.
The attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center occurred as the campaign against AIDS -- killer of 22 million people -- was gaining strength. A U.N. summit in June adopted a global blueprint to fight the disease; developing countries were making headway in their struggle to obtain low-priced drugs to combat the AIDS virus.
"The attacks had a very damaging impact on funding, and we have to get everyone moving again to rebuild that momentum," said Timothy Wirth, a former U.S. senator who heads the United Nations Foundation.
"The victims of Sept. 11, beyond the direct victims of the violence, have been the world's poorest people, particularly those with AIDS. The United States cannot say to the rest of the world, 'Help us' (in fighting terrorism) when we're not willing to help the rest of the world."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed a war chest of $7 billion to $10 billion annually to combat AIDS. But contributions to the U.N. fund, which becomes operational Dec. 15, stalled after reaching $1.5 billion in August.
Congress is on pace to contribute about $200 million for the current fiscal year, though some members are seeking a much larger appropriation -- up to $1.2 billion. Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., agreed this month to head a new task force seeking to boost America's role in the global fight against AIDS.
"The events of Sept. 11 may have temporarily shifted our legislative focus, but our resolve to stop the death toll for HIV/AIDS remains a top priority," Frist said. "The global AIDS epidemic has become our greatest humanitarian crisis."
Some activists are skeptical.
"The United States has spent more time and money bailing out the airline industry than investing in life-extending medications for Africa," said Asia Russell of ACT UP Philadelphia.
Other activists are heartened that U.S. officials now categorize AIDS and other infectious diseases as a threat to national security.
Such illnesses can decimate countries "and, left unchecked, perhaps engulf entire continents," Dr. Norman Neurieter, the State Department's top science adviser, told a conference in early November.
Among those in Neurieter's audience was Rachel Cohen, a Doctors Without Borders staff member working to make AIDS drugs more accessible to poor countries.
"We're encouraged that the fight against infectious diseases appears to remain a high priority -- but it's fair to say the money has not followed," Cohen said.
The U.S. contribution to date, she said, "sets the bar far too low for other countries who see the United States as a leader."
Activists hope World AIDS Day will refocus attention on their campaign. An immediate goal is to expand treatment programs in developing countries, where more than 30 million people have the AIDS virus.
Those efforts may get a boost from a mid-November agreement at the World Trade Organization summit in Doha, Qatar: poor nations will henceforth be able to override patents on lifesaving drugs in emergency situations.
Daniel Berman of Doctors Without Borders said the U.S. outlook on drug patents and prices appears to have changed, after deaths from anthrax-tainted mail sparked government pressure on Bayer Corp. to lower the price of the antibiotic Cipro.
"Instead of this issue being seen as something to do with poor countries far away, suddenly it was our health at stake," Berman said.
Lewis, the U.N. special envoy, predicted that in the long run the campaign against AIDS will regain its pre-attacks momentum.
"There may be hurdles to leap, but once you begin to see the global fund's benefits applied to individual countries, you have a reservoir of hope that people will draw on," he said. "It ultimately becomes unstoppable."
