Abstract

PIP: This article presents the speech delivered by Jonathan Mann, former director of the Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, during the XI International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver in July 1996. Mann notes that a decade ago, an historic event occurred as the global scope and impact of AIDS became evident. During this period, a global AIDS movement was established. However, over the years, such a coherent global action against AIDS declined, subsequently threatening progress against AIDS. Tracing the history of the decline of the old solidarity, Mann highlights that such a loss has come about through the reappearance and reassertion of status quo realities that existed before AIDS. These realities include the gap between the rich and the poor; the separatism between biomedical science and societal activism; and the reality, which requires separation of the infected from the uninfected. To rebuild a capacity for global thinking and action, a strategic approach to restoring and reinforcing connectedness is needed. A transformation from isolation to connectedness is required.