U.N. Special Envoy Stephen Lewis on fighting AIDS

"This is the toughest battle we've ever waged against a disease in human history," Lewis said.

(CNN) This week, for the first time ever, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session focusing on how to combat the pandemic of HIV/AIDS.

Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy to the secretary-general on HIV/AIDS in Africa, spoke with CNN's Stephen Frazier about some the issues the delegates will face.

FRAZIER: I have to ask first, before we talk about the situation in Africa -- let's talk about the situation in the U.N., where a lot of member nations aren't really getting on board this train.

LEWIS: There's obviously some significant discussion about parts of the document, the Declaration of Commitment, as it's called, Stephen (At issue is how to define those who are most vulnerable and at greatest risk of HIV infection). But as someone who has watched these multilateral negotiations over 15, 20 years, they have a dynamic of their own; there's always these linguistic labyrinths where a country struggles with the meanings of words.

But ultimately, there is a consensus and ultimately, we will move the issue forward.

FRAZIER: To be specific, there are some Muslim counties, where the culture is a little more reserved and where they object to language in the declaration that would talk about efforts made to help men have sex with other men or sex workers in the trade, for example.

LEWIS: Yes, questions of homosexuality, questions of sexuality generally are enormously sensitive in cultural terms for numbers of countries, difficult for countries to come directly to grips with them, and the language of resolution.

Other countries, particularly those in the Western world, feel differently. They will find a compromise. They will find language which accommodates the instincts of both sides, and won't prejudice our capacity to move forward.

FRAZIER: And move forward to do what, Mr. Ambassador? There's a lot of talk about help for an AIDS vaccine, but we're away from that. In the short term, what would you do?

LEWIS: In the short term, what's happened I think, Stephen, in the last several months, is really quite astonishing: the drug prices have plummeted. There have been serious efforts made to describe how to deliver anti-retroviral treatment. The famous drug cocktails to those who are infected and to prolong life and turn it into a chronic disease, rather than an immediately fatal one.

The secretary general of the United Nations has effectively put himself on the line. He's talked about it as a personal priority and rallied the United Nation's agencies. The African leadership, which was so entrenched in denial and consumed by worries of stigma and passivity, now feel that they're fighting for the survival of their country. This is a qualitatively different sense.

We have this global trust fund that is launched, moving slowly but its irreversible. Money will come. And then it will culminate this week in the discussions.

I don't want to engage in self-delusion. This is the toughest battle we've ever waged against a disease in human history, as one of your interviewees said to Richard Roth, but it looks as though we may be able finally to turn the tide.

FRAZIER: What would be the most important thing to turn, to get the kind of resources, money to help fight it, or to turn cultural taboos around?

LEWIS: I think all of them have to operate in tandem. You can't do one at the expense of the other. If you're going to do significant treatment to begin to deal with people who would otherwise die, you must remember to do prevention and care simultaneously, because they are inextricably linked.

If you're going to deal with cultural taboos on the one hand, you have to raise the resources to give countries hope. And these countries also need human resources, Stephen, they're devastated. The infrastructures are shredded. The extended families are destroyed. We're dealing with a kind of contemporary apocalypse.

And there comes a moment in time, and that moment has been reached when human kind has to rally. When we've watched for 20 years while millions have died on the sub-Saharan African continent, and it is necessary now I think to mobilize, as all countries want to do, and intervene in a way which gives people some hope and recognizes incrementally that we can turn it around.

FRAZIER: Well, Mr. Ambassador, we're grateful to hear your passion on this issue. Africa a long way from your home. Your native home in Canada. We can tell that it has affected you very deeply. We'll turn to you again through the course of the week, as this conference continues.

LEWIS: Thank you.