World Continues To Backtrack On HIV Treatment
Activists at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna are charging developed and developing country governments with writing cheques that bounce to the millions of people in need of lifesaving HIV treatment. Despite the gains in treatment numbers reported by WHO, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition's (ITPC), latest report, Rationing Funds, Risking Lives, documents early warnings of the global pullback on AIDS commitment and funding: caps on the number of people enrolled on treatment, more frequent drug stock-outs, and national AIDS budgets falling short.
"AIDS is not over. ITPC's report clearly shows that the response is being starved, not over- funded. Governments, North and South, cannot afford to put the clock back and return us to the days when HIV was a death sentence," said Aditi Sharma of ITPC, coordinator of the report.
About Rationing Funds, Risking Lives
Our six-country research shows that programs that have achieved hard-won successes against AIDS are now being starved of financial support - which dooms the goals of achieving universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care, meeting the MDGs by 2015, and building stronger health systems.
In several countries, the financial sustainability of currently inadequate AIDS treatment programs is in question. PLHIV are struggling to cover the many uncovered costs of OI medications, medical consultations, transport costs, food, and second-line medications, while laws to protect vulnerable and marginalized groups like MSM and sex workers are still lacking, PLHIV encounter discrimination in health care settings, and countries continue to give confusing advice about infant feeding and use single-dose nevirapine to prevent vertical transmission of HIV contrary to WHO guidelines.
If this trend continues, the result will be suffering and death for millions of people around the world currently living with HIV and the millions more who will be newly infected this year and the years to come.
AIDS is not over. World leaders who rushed to plow money and effort into bailing out the financial institutions that caused the global economic crisis cannot justify shortchanging a crisis that kills over 5,000 people each day.
Aids Funding Cutbacks
Writing Cheques That Bounce
G8 and the Global Fund
Promised: $10 billion a year
Delivered: $3 billion a year
2001: Created with the full support of the G8 club of rich nations, the Global Fund was intended to be a "war chest" worth $10 billion a year.
2008: Paltry donations followed the bold promises and by 2008, donors scraped together only $3 billion a year.1 In 2009, ambitious and sound proposals from developing countries were met with "efficiency" or budget cuts of 10-25%.
<!-- BEGIN GOOGLE AD FOR LONG STORIES -->
<!-- END GOOGLE AD FOR LONG STORIES -->2011-2013: In March 2010, the Global Fund estimated that it would need $20 billion over the next three years if it is to expand its funding and help meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Donors are using the global economic crisis as an excuse to continue short-changing the fund. Some warn that raising even $13 billion (the lowest scenario, which would mean a dramatic slow down in pace of delivery) is a "huge stretch."
President Obama and PEPFAR
Promised: $48 billion over 5 years
Delivered: Flatlined funding trajectory
2007: Barack Obama pledges $50 billion over five years for PEPFAR during his campaign.2
2008: U.S. Congress commits to $48 billion over five years in bipartisan legislation endorsed by candidates Obama, McCain and Clinton.
2010: The global economic crisis is being used as an excuse to flatline PEPFAR funds compared to much higher year-on-year increases in previous years, especially from 2006-2009. The effects are already visible with new patients being turned away from treatment in PEPFAR-funded programs in Africa.
