Dr Harris supports Stop AIDS campaigners on World AIDS Day

4.44.17pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 1st Dec 2005

December the 1st is World AIDS Day and this year campaigners from the Stop AIDS campaign met with local MP, Dr Evan Harris, on an old route master bus kitted out with hundreds of photos of people's eyeballs, taken to show governments all over the world that 'the world is watching' to see if promises to tackle AIDS are kept.

Dr Harris said: "The bus is a wonderful way of bringing knowledge about this terrible pandemic to the people of Oxford. This year campaigners have pushed the politicians to do something amazing. The G8 promised to get HIV treatment to all the men, women and children who need it by 2010. I'm really proud of the role supporters in our area played in getting this change"

"With the support of politicians all over the country we could achieve a rapid scale up of treatment and ensure that 2005 goes down in history as the year the world finally got to grips with the gravity of the AIDS emergency"

The AIDS pandemic has claimed over 3 million lives this year, including those of half a million children. Over 40 million people in some of the world poorest countries are living with this killer disease - most of them without treatment.

Deaths on this scale are equivalent to a jumbo jet crash every hour of every day. In the UK, public health services can quickly provide effective anti-AIDS drugs, but for the vast majority of people in poorer countries these drugs are too expensive.

Simon Wright of Actionaid said on behalf of the Stop AIDS Campaign "We want the passion of the campaigners here to be a spur for governments to turn their promises into action. We welcomed the radical G8 commitments on HIV/AIDS, especially their ambitious proposal for full access to life-saving treatments by 2010. The question is: are they really serious about making it happen? We need MPs to keep watch with us to ensure this life saving promise is kept."

All year the Stop AIDS Campaign has worked with MP's such as Dr Harris to put AIDS on the agenda. Their support has been key to winning this ambitious treatment pledge. The route master bus was specially decorated with the eyes of hundreds of campaigners who have supported the campaign and who are watching politicians carefully, but the bus is also a way of getting the message across that more needs to be done.

This World AIDS Day, Stop AIDS campaigners are calling on governments to keep their promises on AIDS treatment for all by

• Increasing funding for AIDS programmes

• Making life-saving drugs cheaper

• Investing in health services and skilled professionals so that countries can better cope with the demands of the disease