Mandela Seeks End to Dispute as AIDS Gathering Concludes

DURBAN, South Africa — The high-profile International AIDS Conference, held for the first time at ground zero of the epidemic, ended Friday as it began, dominated as much by questions of money and political will as of medicine.

More than 12,000 people from around the world came together for a week to look for solutions to an epidemic that now infects 34 million people on the planet, 95% of them in the poorest regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa.

“The challenge is to move from rhetoric to action, and action at an unprecedented intensity and scale,” said Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, referring to his country’s often-criticized response to the epidemic.

The 13th AIDS conference had at times become bogged down, with arguments and counter-arguments on topics ranging from the cause of AIDS to funding for treatment programs.

At the forefront was the controversy over the position of Mandela’s successor, President Thabo Mbeki, on HIV and AIDS.

Mandela’s speech belatedly brought the conference back on track after a debilitating dispute sparked by Mbeki’s opening speech to the conference Sunday.

On that occasion, Mbeki failed to eliminate doubts that he had adopted some of the controversial views held by so-called AIDS dissidents, some of whom say HIV does not cause AIDS.

The next International AIDS Conference will be in Barcelona, Spain, in 2002.