Agence France Presse (07.19.11) - Thursday, July 21, 2011
Lack of funding remains one of the greatest obstacles to
implementing highly effective HIV prevention interventions,
experts said in Rome at the 6th International AIDS Society
Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention.
Studies presented at the conference showed the power of HIV
drugs in preventing new infections. Nonetheless, the funding
gap imperils the chances of employing "treatment as
prevention," pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and male
circumcision - which can reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV
infection about 60 percent - on a wider basis.
Between 2001 and 2009, AIDS funding for developing countries
grew nearly 10-fold, from $1.6 billion annually to $15.9
billion. However, funding declined in 2010 as Western nations
responded to the global financial crisis. While about 6.6
million people are on antiretroviral therapy, another 9
million still need treatment. Accomplishing this by 2015 will
require $22 billion to $24 billion annually.
New money could come from innovative levies and from tapping
the resources of oil-rich nations and emerging economic giants
such as China and India, advocates said. However, the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has had little success
opening up these new sources, acknowledged Executive Director
Michel Kazatchkine.
"We are in dangerous times for AIDS funding," said Peter Piot,
director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical School
of Medicine and the former head of UNAIDS. "Science is running
much faster now than what we can implement and what we can pay
for."