Today is World Aids Day and despite world leaders promising to achieve universal access for everyone to treatment for HIV and Aids by 2015, this is a long way off.

Currently 33 million people live with HIV around the world and only one in three of them get the treatment they need. And disgracefully, fewer than 40% of children who have HIV are receiving treatment.

As a result, 6.000 people – 300 of these children – die every day, mainly in the world’s poorest countries.

One of the main issues around treatment at the moment is that people simply cannot afford the drugs. The majority of people not receiving treatment are living in poverty and the cost can be up to $5,000 per person, per year.

One initiative to end this injustice is the Patent Pool. This is a system where pharmaceutical companies donate the patents for their drugs into a “pool”, so that cheap, generic versions can be manufactured.

This initiative is being developed and supported by five countries, including the UK, and could transform the lives of millions of people across the world.

Oxfam is asking GlaxoSmithKline, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, to support this initiative.

Please go to www.oxfam.

org.uk and go to the get involved, health and education page to help push GSK to support the Patent Pool.

Lisa Rutherford, Oxfam Campaigner, The Drive, Hove