U2 front man and humanitarian activist Bono has praised antiretroviral drugs that are bringing back AIDS sufferers from the brink of death as countries unite for World AIDS Day.
One such miracle is that of eight-year-old Denyse Mushimiyimana was almost comatose in May when Bono visited the paediatric ward of the central hospital in Kigali where she was receiving treatment after being newly diagnosed with the virus.
Her distraught father, also infected with HIV, could only look on at the motionless skeletal frame of his daughter as he sat at her hospital bedside. Now Denyse's parents are rejoicing thanks to the 'Lazarus effect' of antiretroviral therapy which has allowed their daughter to return to school and join in the same games and activities that the other children can.
"Aids is no longer a death sentence," Bono said. "Just two pills a day will bring someone who is at death's door back to full health, back to full life. Doctors call it 'the Lazarus effect'. I've seen it myself and I have to say that it's nothing short of a miracle."
He added: These pills are available at any corner drugstore. They cost less than a dollar a day, but the poorest people in Africa earn less than a dollar a day. They can't afford them, and so they die. It's unnecessary. It's insane."
Bono recently launched the RED campaign together with philanthropist Bobby Shriver to bring big businesses and customers into the fight against HIV and Aids. Corporate giants Amex, Apple, Armani, Gap, Converse and Motorola have all signed up and brought out special RED products.
A percentage of the sale of these products goes straight to the Global Fund which was set up in 2002 with the specific purpose of fighting HIV and AIDS. The campaign has already raised more than £5m.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has called on all people across the globe to hold their leaders accountable on World AIDS Day - 1 December 2006.
Urging the world to remain united in the fight against AIDS, Annan requested that momentum remain strong, as movements across the world mobilise to put pressure on the world's top politicians and leaders to do more.
