Leaders of the G8 countries are gathering in Genoa, Italy from July 20 to 22. When the G8 leaders met in Okinawa in December last year, they committed to fighting infectious diseases by increasing access to medicines and to strengthening cooperation in the area of basic research and development on new drugs, vaccines and other international public health goods.

Four months after Kofi Annan's announcement in April of the establishment of a global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the international community is still discussing the structure and funding of such a mechanism. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned that valuable time is lost and patients in developing countries continue to die because they have no access to essential drugs.