DEVELOPMENT
REPORT - Yearender 2003
By Jill Moss
This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English
Development Report.
As two-thousand-three ends, several major issues and
events have influenced the year in development.
In October, the first treaty to fight organized criminal
groups around the world became part of international law. About one-hundred-fifty
nations signed the agreement. It includes a measure making work in organized
criminal groups illegal.
Also this year, South Korean doctor Jong Wook Lee
was named the new director-general of the World Health Organization.
One of his main goals is to fight health problems in Africa, especially
AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. The United Nations estimates
about forty-million people have the virus.
World AIDS Day on December first supported international
efforts to fight the disease. The W-H-O announced a new plan to provide
three-million AIDS patients in developing countries with medicine by
the end of two-thousand-five. This program also calls for training more
than one-hundred-thousand community health workers. They will work at
the local level, providing anti-retroviral drugs and supervising patients.
However, the three-million AIDS patients is still only half of the number
of people considered in immediate need of the drugs.
The W-H-O estimates five-and-one-half-thousand-million
dollars will be needed to carry out its program. The cost would have
been higher if not for a recent agreement negotiated by the Clinton
Foundation to reduce drug prices for poor nations. Former President
Bill Clinton negotiated the agreement with three drug companies in India
and one in South Africa. The companies produce low-cost versions of
drugs protected by legal permits, or patents. They will sell these medicines
to Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and twelve Caribbean countries.
The Clinton Foundation agreement was made possible
by a World Trade Organization ruling in September. The W-T-O gave its
approval for poor countries threatened by killer diseases to import
patented drugs. Under the agreement, international patent laws will
be eased to permit drug companies in countries like India and Brazil
to sell copies of medicines to poor nations. The agreement also calls
for special measures to prevent copied drugs from being illegally transported
back to wealthy nations.
This VOA Special English Development Report
was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen.
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