| Date | 22 September 2003 |
|---|---|
| Started | 21:05 |
| Ended | 25:30 |
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Agenda item 47 (continued)
Follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth special session: implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS
High-level plenary meetings devoted to the follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth special session and the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS
Report of the Secretary-General (A/58/184)
The Acting President
I now give the floor to His Excellency The Honourable Joseph Borg, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Malta.
Mr. Borg (Malta)
My delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered by Italy on behalf of the European Union and acceding countries.
Although the number of cases of HIV/AIDS in Malta remains comparatively low, we recognize the further potential devastating impact of the disease and acknowledge that there is certainly no room for complacency. We reaffirm Malta's pledge to fight against that pandemic, as well as our commitment to strive further to address the problem of HIV/AIDS in all its aspects. Discussing the problem at the national level is not enough. Our responsibilities as representatives of our citizens compel us to take the debate further. We have a collective moral obligation towards the citizens we represent to address this challenge in a concrete manner and in a concerted global response.
That fight has to be fought on two fronts, namely, those of containment and prevention. Admittedly, that is not easy; but the experiences of other countries that have been successful should serve as an example for all to follow. Malta has closely witnessed the changes and advances that have occurred in the field over past years -- from the unfortunate earlier times, when all that could be offered to our patients was the treatment of opportunistic infections and palliative care, to the more recent availability of antiretroviral medication. That has completely changed the outlook and quality of life of our patients and of all concerned.
Malta believes that an accessible and well-organized health care system is the key to an effective containment strategy. Our State hospital's infectious diseases unit offers centralized service on the island. Free antiretroviral treatment may only be prescribed from that unit, which also works very closely with a centralized laboratory where anonymous HIV-testing is carried out. That allows for more accurate collection of data and epidemiological study, which is central to a targeted response and appropriate allocation of limited resources.
Malta's response to the epidemic has been a comprehensive one, integrating prevention, voluntary confidential counselling and testing, care, support and treatment. That multidisciplinary service is provided by various departments of the national health service, working in close liaison with social workers and related non-governmental organizations.
Indeed, the prevention of infection remains the mainstay of Malta's response, through the provision of information, the screening of all blood donors and donations, the adoption of universal precautions in the health care setting, awareness-raising campaigns and targeted educational and other programmes, such as the free distribution of syringes from health centres. In addition, people living with HIV/AIDS in Malta benefit from easy access to free health care, including medication, information, counselling and support -- all of which has resulted in improved quality of life. Confidentiality is a priority throughout the system, and is of the utmost importance in a small community like Malta.
It has long been recognized that the fight against HIV/AIDS must include all sexually transmitted infections. HIV testing is actively encouraged in all patients attending the recently set up walk-in clinic for the diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted infections. The very good uptake of 70 per cent is much higher than the minimum recommended target.
Malta is actively working on its first national sexual health policy. Key elements of the policy include proposals for a review of sex education in schools and surveillance of major sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. It will also emphasize the need for specific legislation to address problems such as discrimination in employment opportunities and other basic human rights.
Although the problem of HIV/AIDS is relatively contained on our island, it is still a reality and larger than life for those who live with the virus day in and day out.
In conclusion I would like to reiterate an all-important point that our countries had made in the Declaration of Commitment expressed at the twenty-sixth special session of the General Assembly, when we affirmed the key role played by the family in the prevention, care, support and treatment of our fellow human beings affected by this human tragedy.
The Acting President
--> -->
| <type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'> | Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Thu May 23 03:39:13 2013 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in |
| 194 if __name__ == "__main__": |
| 195 pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO") |
| 196 maintrunk(pathpart) |
| 197 |
| 198 |
| maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_58/meeting_6/highlight_A-RES-48-265' |
| /data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_58/meeting_6/highlight_A-RES-48-265') |
| 131 elif pagefunc == "gameeting": |
| 132 LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| 133 WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"]) |
| 134 elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded": |
| 135 LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl) |
| global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-58-PV.6', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 6, 'gasession': 58, 'highlightdoclink': 'A-RES-48-265', 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-58-PV.6.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>} |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-58-PV.6.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth='A-RES-48-265') |
| 322 if dclass == "spoken": |
| 323 if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice: |
| 324 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation) |
| 325 elif dclass == "subheading": |
| 326 if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice): |
| global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg002-bk01', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Acti...ight against AIDS of the Republic of Burundi.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None |
| /home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg002-bk01', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Acti...ight against AIDS of the Republic of Burundi.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None) |
| 69 print '</cite>' |
| 70 |
| 71 print dtext[mspek.end(0):] |
| 72 |
| 73 print '</div>' |
| dtext = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">The Acti...ight against AIDS of the Republic of Burundi.</p>', mspek = <_sre.SRE_Match object>, mspek.end = <built-in method end of _sre.SRE_Match object> |
<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe8' in position 77: ordinal not in range(128)
args =
('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg002-bk01-pa01"> I now give the floor ...ight against AIDS of the Republic of Burundi.</p>', 77, 78, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
encoding =
'ascii'
end =
78
message =
''
object =
u'\n\t<p id="pg002-bk01-pa01"> I now give the floor ...ight against AIDS of the Republic of Burundi.</p>'
reason =
'ordinal not in range(128)'
start =
77