U.S. receives an 'E' on AIDS report card

A global score card on AIDS programs gave the United States a nearly flunking grade because the country's health officials failed to report their progress in fighting the disease to the United Nations, a watchdog group said Tuesday.

The AIDS Accountability Initiative gave the U.S., along with such countries as North Korea and Saudi Arabia, an E, one step above the lowest grade possible, on a scorecard rating national responses to the disease. The main reason for the poor score was the lack of information provided to the UN office that coordinates worldwide AIDS work, the Stockholm groups members said Tuesday in a study.

Member nations of the UN adopted a declaration in 2001 that commits them to report regularly on progress against HIV, the lethal human immunodeficiency virus that infects 33 million people worldwide and causes AIDS.

The absence of data from the U.S. and other industrialized countries, including Denmark, Ireland and Italy, makes it difficult to determine which governments are having success fighting HIV, and why others are failing.

Reporting may be poor for a number of reasons, and there may be a "certain amount of arrogance" from rich countries, said Per Strand, the Accountability Initiatives scientific director, in a telephone call with reporters Tuesday. It is clear that in some cases the reporting does not reflect the response.

Health and Human Services Department officials didn't didntimmediately return calls seeking comment.

About 1.1 million people in the U.S. are infected with HIV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency raised its estimate of annual HIV infections in the U.S. to 56,300 from 40,000 in August. The 40 percent increase sparked an uproar among advocates who said health officials are ignoring the epidemic in highly vulnerable gay men and blacks.

Countries such as Mexico and Tajikistan got A grades from the group. High grades indicated the countries reported on measures such as financial resources put into HIV prevention and treatment, engagement of non-governmental organizations, human rights protection for people affected by the epidemic and coordination of efforts.

Many countries got poor grades because they didn't collect data on the measures covered in the report. The U.S. failed to report data on six out of seven measures, resulting in the lowest grade on the eighth measure, data collection.

A widespread lack of transparency is one of the key factors hindering accountability for commitments, the report said. Assessment of performance cannot occur unless countries provide all the requested data.