By Anthony Brown, MD

NEW YORK, Mar 29 (Reuters Health) - A new multinational AIDS organization was officially launched at a meeting in Washington, DC Thursday.

The group, known as the Global AIDS Alliance (GAA), was formed to ensure a rapid and comprehensive response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, according to a statement from GAA.

"The Global AIDS Alliance is a new organization that is being formed to mobilize a broad-based constituency to join the battle to stop global AIDS now," Dr. Paul Zeitz, co-director of GAA, told Reuters Health. "Currently there is no constituency pushing for global action and that's why we haven't had a good response."

"There are lot of faith-based groups, debt-relief groups, treatment access groups, human rights groups, student groups and professional associations that are gearing up to respond to the AIDS crisis," Zeitz said. "The GAA will help accelerate their action and it will link the various constituencies under a common campaign."

Three campaigns will be launched, Zeitz said. The first is a multi-billion dollar effort to combat AIDS in Africa. The second is the Meds-for-All campaign in which GAA will build on work already done by treatment access groups. In the third campaign, GAA will assist the Jubilee coalitions with their Drop-the-Debt initiative.

"There are a zillion AIDS organizations out there, but this is really the first global alliance of these organizations," Zeitz stated. "We're not trying to be a global network on top of these organizations, we just want to be part of the movement focusing on these three issues."

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