Thirty years after Aids surfaced, Barack Obama was today expected to declare "the beginning of the end" of the disease thanks to the dramatic results achieved by antiretroviral drugs.
Underlining America's bipartisan response to the challenge, the United States President was to be joined on World Aids Day by two of his predecessors in insisting that the US will continue to lead the world in tackling the disease. Bill Clinton will participate by phone, while George W. Bush will speak from Tanzania alongside President Jakaya Kikwete.
But fatally undermining the claim that the disease is on the way out is the decision by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria to call off its latest funding round. Countries around the world are slashing their aid budgets amid global financial strife.
This week, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the UK would "stick by its commitment to the poorest people in the world" by continuing to devote 0.7 per cent of gross national income to aid - but as this has fallen, that amounts to a cut of £1.164 billion ($2.3 billion) over the next three years.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell was challenged to ringfence help for HIV/Aids prevention work overseas after the Chancellor's decision to cut aid spending. Adrian Lovett, Europe director of the anti-poverty group One, said: "This must not result in life-saving HIV programmes being put at risk and Andrew Mitchell must ensure that they are protected."