Downturn hurting AIDS fight, group warns
JOHANNESBURG - The global recession and pressure to divert funds to other health crises are hurting the fight against AIDS, a medical group warned yesterday, with one health worker saying he feared a return to the days when the disease was a death sentence in Africa.
Medecins Sans Frontieres officials said that clinics funded by international donors in Uganda were being told not to take on new patients. Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said it feared a major global distributor of AIDS money was considering cutting back worldwide.
South Africa has the world’s largest number of HIV cases, with some 5.7 million people infected with the virus, according to the UN.
“We think we are at a very dangerous turning point,’’ said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of the aid group’s campaign to provide essential medicines.
He said he has been told that donors wanted to spend on “cheap and easy’’ illnesses rather than AIDS, which can mean a lifelong commitment to providing expensive drugs.
A spokesman for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said that despite the “challenging’’ financial times, “there is no interruption in any funding whatsoever.’’ The fund provides a quarter of all international financing for AIDS.
Medecins Sans Frontieres also said a top US AIDS initiative was faltering. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief plans to keep funding at current levels for the next two years, even though needs are growing, the aid group said.
