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Waning international donor support for the fight against AIDS is a threat to a decade of progress in HIV treatment, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Thursday.
“Some of the spotlight has come off of HIV largely due to the fact that there has been tremendous success in scaling up. There are four million people alive on ARVs (anti-retrovirals) that otherwise wouldn’t have been,” MSF spokeswoman Sharonann Lynch told AFP.
“The dirty secret is that donors want to be let off the hook for what is lifelong and unfortunately, right now, expensive treatment.”
The charity, in a new 12-page report, warns that a retreat in donor support could have “catastrophic implications”.
“Both political commitment and funding allocations are waning,” it said.
“The most glaring sign of the decreasing political commitment to HIV-AIDS is a major funding deficit,” the report added.
A “dangerous trend” underway in global health policy arena had seen calls for foreign aid to be diverted from HIV to other health priorities but MSF said cutting AIDS aid was not the answer.
“This killer disease is an ongoing emergency that requires dedicated resources at the national and international levels,” it said.
Funding cuts in Uganda had resulted in HIV positive patients being turned away and now-resolved financial shortages in South Africa saw treatment disrupted and uptake of new HIV positive patients.
While four million people are on anti-AIDS drugs in the world, some six million people are still in need of treatment, MSF said.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Saturday urged his fellow Americans to get tested for HIV in an effort to reduce transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.
“On this 14th commemoration of National HIV Testing Day, I urge Americans to take control of their own health — and protect those they love — by getting tested for HIV and working to reduce HIV transmission,” Obama said in a statement.
“While its impacts are not evenly spread — infection rates are particularly high among gay and bisexual men, African Americans and Latinos — when one of our fellow citizens becomes infected with HIV every nine-and-a-half minutes, the epidemic affects all Americans,” he said.
Obama noted that of the estimated 1.15 million people infected with HIV in the United States, more than 230,000 — one in five — do not know they are infected.
The US president last month unveiled a plan to commit 63 billion dollars over six years to battle chronic global health crises, including AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, a continuation of a landmark initiative launched by his predecessor George W. Bush.
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