Wealthy Nations Must Stop ‘Decade of Financial Abstinence,’ Increase International AIDS Spending, U.N. Envoy Lewis Says
U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis on Sunday at the opening of the 11th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco said that wealthy nations must contribute more money to the international fight against HIV/AIDS to make up for a "decade of financial abstinence," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. No country is "paying an adequate share" of money to finance the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Lewis said, adding that the fund needs $3.6 billion for 2005. The "fair share" for the United States would be $1.6 billion in 2005, Lewis said, according to the Chronicle (Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/9). However, President Bush in his proposed fiscal year 2005 budget requests $200 million for the Global Fund. Congress appropriated $550 million for the fund in FY 2004 (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/29). Lewis said that although Bush has pledged $15 billion over five years to fight HIV/AIDS, most of the funding will go directly to programs in 12 African countries. However, programs such as the Global Fund are needed to address the epidemic in countries that are not included on the U.S. list, Lewis said. Lewis also highlighted the World Health Organization's goal of bringing antiretroviral drug treatment to three million people by 2005, calling it the "single most important and dramatic development that has happened in years" (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/9). WHO's $5.5 billion plan calls for training 100,000 health care workers, refocusing 10,000 clinics in developing countries to treat HIV/AIDS and using some common antiretroviral drug combinations. However, the plan does not provide the drugs or subsidize their cost (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/21). Lewis said that an additional $200 million in funding is needed from developed countries to "get [the program] under way" this year, according to the Chronicle (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/9).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.