A Call to Make AIDS History

The world must come up with the "billions of dollars" needed to take advantage of the "historic opportunity" to "eradicate AIDS from the surface of the planet," Carla Bruni-Sarkozy wrote Saturday in the daily Liberation. An "international tax" could be one way to raise the funds needed, said the wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also a goodwill ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

"Treating everyone means halting transmission of the virus, in other words stopping the epidemic, but we must act very quickly," she wrote.

Friday's decision by the G8 leaders to pledge $5 billion for maternal and child health is "an encouraging signal," Bruni-Sarkozy said, adding she hopes to see a similar boost for the Global Fund when its budget is up for renewal later this year.