With at least one million people in Angola infected with AIDS, the capacity of treatment is very limited. After a three-decade civil war, national health infrastructure has been annihilated and efforts to rebuild health care are slow. Accessible sexually transmitted infection diagnosis and management is not provided by Angola�s Ministry of Health.

Angola zestfully supports the mass distribution of generic drugs as it is the cheapest and easiest method. Yet, even with low cost generic drugs the distribution at a country level would currently be impossible. Angola needs aid to help rebuild and reform our healthcare system to curtail our current AIDS crisis, and yet we cannot accept anything that would infringe on our national policy. We need the help of a non-governmental entity to even distribute any ARVs that are allotted to us. Angola urges the committee to look at country-level distribution, as well as international. Without assessing and solving the country-level distribution issue as well, any decision this committee makes will be inconclusive to Angola�s (and many other countries�) HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Name-brand single-drug pills are not a viable solution for Angola and many other developing nations. There are simply not nearly enough doctors to individualize the �drug cocktails� for the people of Angola. Currently the doctor to person ratio in Angola is about 1 to about 15,000 people. Also, these name-brand drugs cost three times as much, and are well out Angola�s fiscal reach. Angola needs these drugs now, and the argument that, in the long run generic drugs will lead to less research, holds no water. With such an attitude, thousands more will die.

Angola has some questions that it wishes to be seen raised in committee.How will we put in place country-level distribution? What organization will allot fund this country-level distribution? What organization shall fund and allot generic ARVs?