E-DRUG: MSF report "No Time To Quit: HIV & AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa"
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Please find MSF's report on
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=D9101088-15C5-F00A-258244A3E07C4A75&component=toolkit.pressrelease&method=full_html
Backtracking by international donors in funding HIV/AIDS risks undermining
years of positive achievements and will cause many more unnecessary
deaths, warns humanitarian aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a
new report.
Titled 'No time to quit: HIV & AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa', the
report (download here) builds on analyses made in eight sub-Saharan
countries to illustrate how major international funding institutions such
as PEPFAR, the World Bank, UNITAID, and donors to the Global Fund have
decided to cap, reduce or withdraw their spending on HIV treatment and
antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) over the past year and a half.
'How can we give up the fight halfway and pretend that the crisis is
over?' said Dr. Mit Philips, Health Policy Analyst for MSF and one of the
authors of the report. 'Nine million people worldwide in need of urgent
treatment still lack access to this lifesaving care - two thirds of them
in sub-Saharan Africa alone. There is a real risk that many of them will
die within the next few years if necessary steps are not taken now. Also,
the current donor retreat will prevent more people from accessing
treatment and will threaten to undermine all the progress made since the
introduction of ARVs.' The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief,
PEPFAR, reduced its budget for the purchase of ARVs in 2009 and 2010, and
also introduced a freeze on its overall HIV/AIDS budget. Other donors,
such as UNITAID and the World Bank, have announced reductions over the
coming years in the funding for antiretroviral drugs in Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Global Fund, the largest funding institution in the fight against
HIV & AIDS, faces a major funding shortfall. The US, the Netherlands and
Ireland have already announced that they will be providing lower
contributions to the Global Fund. In 2009-2010, contributions to already
approved country grants were reduced by 8 to 12 percent.
Overall funding cuts have translated into a reduction in the number of
people able to start their ARV treatment, as seen in South Africa and
Uganda, and in DRC - where the number of new patients able to start ARV
treatment has been cut six-fold. Already fragile health systems will
become increasingly strained by an increasing patient load requiring more
intensive care.
Drug stock-outs and disruptions in drug supply are already a reality, and
will become more frequent if sufficient funding is not made available. MSF
has recently been requested by the government and other actors to assist
with emergency drug supplies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, DRC, Kenya and Uganda.
'If there is reduced funding, then it will mean more people will die, and
we will have more orphans,' said Catherine Mango, an HIV patient from
Kenya. 'The ones that are positive often need to assist others, like their
children. People will lose hope and die. It will be the end. If there are
no drugs there is no future.'
ARV treatment is lifesaving but also lifelong. This means that the number
of patients under treatment increases cumulatively each year, thus
requiring incrementally growing and sustainable funding.
'The HIV & AIDS crisis remains a massive emergency that still requires an
exceptional response. MSF calls for a sustained and renewed commitment by
donors and national governments in the fight against HIV & AIDS, so that
this disastrous public health crisis can be addressed appropriately,'
concluded Dr. Philips.
Seco Gerard
Analysis and Advocacy Unit, Gen. Dir.
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Operational Centre Brussels (OCB)
+32 2 475 36 34
Seco GERARD <seco.gerard@brussels.msf.org>