Broken Treatment Promises for Africa
posted: 27/05/2010
International aid organisations are breaking their promises to Africa, to provide universal HIV treatment. This risks undermining years of positive achievements and will cause many more unnecessary deaths, warns humanitarian aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in their new report.
Effects in 8 African countries
Their report No time to quit: HIV/AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa looks at eight sub-Saharan countries. It shows 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 over the past year and a half.
9 Million Still Need Treatment
“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.”
USA cuts and others planned
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).
Global Fund is short of cash
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.
6 times fewer treated
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 was cut six-fold. Fragile health systems become increasingly strained by an increasing number of patients who will now need more intensive care.
Drug stock-outs and disruptions in drug supply are already a reality, and will become more frequent without enough funding. MSF has been asked by governments and others to help with emergency drug supplies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, DRC, Kenya and Uganda.
More deaths and orphans
“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.
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