Global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs are already feeling the effects of the global economic crisis, according to a report released by UNAIDS and the World Bank. The report
found “in 34 countries, respondents said there is already an impact on prevention programmes.
The global fight against HIV/AIDS is threatened by stagnating economies around the world, which
have caused governments to shrink their budgets and, with them, grants to fight the illness.
“We are facing a major challenge in terms of funding because the global economic downturn has
got a lot of governments looking hard at their budgets, and some doing decreases in the kind of aid
that goes for global health, and AIDS in particular,” said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who now
runs a philanthropic foundation that bears his and his wife’s names.
Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), said
the economic crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for the fight against AIDS. “There are not
enough resources to meet the demands of people who need treatment and prevention,” he said,
adding that the sharp dip in funding to fight AIDS has hit “just as we are reaping the fruit of success
in getting therapy and prevention to the developing world.”
Cuts are also threatening the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which
distributes nearly a quarter of all HIV/AIDS donor money, according to the report. But shortfalls
have caused the fund, whose main contributors are the United States and European countries, to
cut approved grants by 10 percent and to consider canceling a 2010 funding round, the report said.
Though the global funding retreat has not yet resulted in major cuts to AIDS treatment, it is
threatening its growth, or “scale-up,” said officials with Doctors Without Borders.
“Some policymakers say AIDS is expensive, we should focus on cheap and easy things,” Tido von
Schoen-Angerer, director of Doctors Without Borders’ Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines,
told. “This cannot be an either-or game. . . . It’s not that HIV is overfunded. Global health is
underfunded.”
Dr Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), warned of the devastating
consequences if governments “don’t do more in terms of the quality and quantity of care for people
with HIV.” Doing nothing would “result in dire human and economic costs in the short and long
term,” he said.
Dr Paul Zeitz, founder and executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) called on world
leaders to be true to their word and step up to the plate in the fight against AIDS. Among those he
singled out for criticism were US President Barack Obama who during his campaign for the US
presidency pledged to increase funding for AIDS more than three-fold.
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