E-DRUG: UNITAID statement on global fund replenishment outcome
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*UNITAID Calls for Campaign to Mobilise Innovative Financing for AIDS, TB
and Malaria*
Geneva, 6 October 2010 - UNITAID welcomes donor countries’ pledges to The
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, made yesterday in New York at the agency’s third replenishment meeting. However, the final figure of USD 11.7 billion is less than hoped for as it falls short of the low-end funding scenario of USD 13 billion. Other funds must now be mobilised to address current needs.
“The fight against the three diseases still requires additional funding,”
said Jorge Bermudez, UNITAID Executive Secretary. "We need to ensure that in this time of financial constraints the poorest are not neglected and that programmes that work are adequately funded."
Ten years of global efforts and dedicated funding have put nearly five
million people on HIV/AIDS treatment in developing countries. The Global
Fund has had a large share of that success. But another ten million people
currently in need of life-saving AIDS medicines – 60% of them women and
children - are still waiting.
Current research shows that the world needs to invest more into the fight
against AIDS and not less. The World Health Organization published new
guidelines at the Vienna AIDS Conference in July 2010, recommending earlier
treatment initiation and newer and more robust medicines for people living
with HIV in the developing world. Newer medicines are more expensive, and
with earlier treatment initiation the number of people in need of therapy
will skyrocket in the next years.
“Targeting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria has produced real benefits even for
other health priorities such as child and maternal health,” said Philippe
Douste-Blazy, UNITAID’s Chair. “What we need today is a massive movement to
make globalization work for and not against people. If official aid cannot
measure up to current needs, we immediately need to activate other means of
securing funding. Innovative financing, such as UNITAID’s model of
collecting additional funds from small levies on air tickets – and a
results-driven, innovative approach to spending the money - have achieved
enormous benefits in a very short time and could well be the only solution
to reach the Millennium Development Goals.”
HIV/AIDS is slated to be the disease hardest hit by dwindling donor backing
because it is a chronic condition and patients need to take medicines for
their entire life. But malaria and tuberculosis will also suffer. Not
addressing these diseases, or reducing existing interventions, will not only cause more deaths, it will actually put unsustainable pressure on already weak health systems.