E-DRUG: MSF responds to Obama's commitment to increase HIV funding on World AIDS Day
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Medecins Sans Frontieres responds to US President Barack Obama's announcement that the US government will commit to funding for an extra two million people to go on HIV treatment by the end of 2013; please see below for a response quote from MSF Access Campaign Executive Director Dr Tido von Schoen-Angerer:
Response by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/ Doctors Without Borders to President Obama's speech on World AIDS Day, committing to reach two million more people with US-funded HIV treatment by the end of 2013 (totalling nearly 6 million people on treatment under US funding).
1 December 2011
'This commitment today is the shot in the arm that the global HIV/AIDS response needs right now. We hope this marks the end of donors walking away from supporting global HIV/AIDS, despite evidence that the epidemic can be reversed. People living with HIV around the world will be watching closely to make sure this commitment is turned into reality. Now it is time for all governments - both donors and affected countries alike- to step up, fund the Global Fund, and increase the pace of HIV treatment scale-up, so that the effort to end AIDS is not derailed.
Our doctors and nurses started treating people with HIV in developing countries a decade ago, in the face of widespread skepticism, and yet today half of the people who need treatment now have it. This is the best time to charge full speed ahead and get treatment to everyone who needs it so we can save lives and get ahead of the wave of new infections.'
Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer - Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières, Access Campaign
Joanna Keenan
Press Officer
Access Campaign
Medecins Sans Frontieres
E: joanna.keenan[at]geneva.msf.org