Former President Bill Clinton addressed the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Monday, pressing for more action against AIDS in the United States. Recently released data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the rate of annual new HIV infections in the US is about 40 per cent higher than previously thought, and African American men and women suffer nearly half of all new infections.

Clinton said that Americans need to wake up and focus on fighting rampant AIDS at home, alleging that his foundation will HIV/AIDS Initiative will change its primary focus from abroad to the United States. The William J. Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative is credited with helping negotiate drastically lower prices for anti-retroviral therapies and diagnostic tests in several places around the world, including Senegal, Tanzania, Rwanda and Haiti.

Bill Clinton also underlined in a subsequent BBC interview that encouraging monogamy should be an important part of the fight against HIV/AIDS. He also said that current U.S. health care systems are impeding fight against the disease, partly because they don't provide universal coverage which would enable early testing, diagnosis and treatment.

As expected, the recent CDC report showed that gay men are the most affected by new HIV infections. Also, recently, the Black AIDS Institute has found that the United States spearheads the global response to HIV/AIDS abroad, but neglects problems with the disease at home, especially among black people.