Another sobering thought: most of the 2.3 million HIV-positive children were infected through their mothers.
"HIV/AIDS is no longer just a crisis in the healthcare of the developing nations – it is a development problem," said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan back in 1999. "The fight against AIDS concerns all of us – the governments of the affected countries and our own society."
Research-based pharmaceutical companies like Boehringer Ingelheim bear a special responsibility. Faced with the ever-widening gap between rich and poor nations, the family-owned company is striving to help poor countries that cannot afford life-saving AIDS drugs.
For one of the top 15 companies in the pharmaceutical sector, with 37,000 employees worldwide, corporate social responsibility plays an increasingly important role.
In 2000, it launched its Nevirapine Donation Program, which has since been giving developing countries cost-free access to its AIDS preparation Nevirapine to prevent viral transmission from an HIV-positive mother to her child during birth.
Although its products are still patent-protected, the firm has also allowed voluntary licenses for certain generics manufacturers to produce anti-HIV drugs more cheaply locally for African countries.
Its branches in countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS initiated training for health service workers or other interested parties, and supported the work of anti-AIDS groups.
Children are infected mainly through perinatal transmission from mother to baby. Without treatment, about 15 to 30 percent of babies born to HIV-positive women would become infected in pregnancy or birth. Five to 20 percent more are infected through breastfeeding.
The rate of transmission can be reduced substantially by administering a single Nevirapine tablet to the mother during the birth period and a few drops of Nevirapine suspension to the neonate.
At least 151 corresponding AIDS programs have been set up in 59 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.
After a rather slow start in its initial years for lack of qualified personnel and inadequate infrastructure in the developing countries, the program has picked up in the last three years.
"The very effective program helps many HIV-positive mothers bear healthy children," said Dr. Charles Wanyoni, of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, citing "a dramatic decline in mother-to-child transmission during birth."
Striving to work with governments and non-governmental organizations, Boehringer Ingelheim initiated the "Turning the Tide" staff training program. A training center was set up in Botswana to train medical healthcare personnel, particularly on HIV.
Making effective treatments available is not enough. Affected individuals should have quick access to these treatments. Thus, the Accelerating Access Initiative (AAI) was organized, of which Boehringer Ingelheim is a founding member. It involves collaboration between global pharmaceutical companies and various United Nations organizations.
As part of this initiative, antiretroviral preparations for the chronic treatment of HIV infection are provided at greatly reduced prices. By December 2005, over 716,000 HIV-positive individuals had been provided with these drugs by the companies involved in the AAI. And more are being provided.
"Although much has been achieved, a lot remains to be done in the developing countries," said Dr. Alessandro Banchi, chairman of the Boehringer Ingelheim board of managing directors.
"Healthcare infrastructure must be accelerated, more research should develop better drugs. To help AIDS-stricken countries, top priority should focus on wider information to prevent new infections, changing attitudes toward the sufferers and providing access to treatments. The pharmaceutical industry, governments, NGOs and healthcare organizations must work more closely to combat the AIDS pandemic," he added.