Global economic crisis threatens fight against AIDS
WASHINGTON — The global fight against HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immune deficiency syndrome) 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. That very topic will be widely discussed at the 18th international conference on AIDS in Vienna next week, said Gates, who will deliver a speech at the meeting. Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, 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.” Some five million people in poor countries are being treated for or to prevent HIV/AIDS today, compared with just one tenth of that number six years ago. The cost of antiretrovirals has fallen from $15,000 per person per year in 2001 to $120 a year today. And the rate of infection with human immunodeficiency virus — or HIV — has dropped 17 percent compared to 2001, when it was at its acme. .... MORESource: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100719com3.html |
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