PREVIEW: Donors' financial crisis threatens AIDS care in Africa

By Carola Frentzen Dec 3, 2011, 2:07 GMT

Addis Ababa - It's been almost 30 years since the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was discovered. In that time, the words AIDS and Africa have become inextricably linked.

About 68 per cent of the 34 million people worldwide carrying HIV or actually ill with AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa alone has an estimated 5.6 million HIV-positive people - more than any other country in the world.

An International Conference on AIDS and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) in Africa was held for the first time 25 years ago to discuss the African ramifications of the disease.

The 16th ICASA begins on Sunday in Addis Ababa, with more than 5,000 delegates. However, it could be overshadowed by funding concerns caused by the ongoing global financial and economic crisis.

Just a few days ago, the Global Fund (GF) set up to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria made known that it was running into financial difficulties.

An increasing number of countries are cutting back or even completely halting their donations to the GF. Experts fear that vital projects, particularly in Africa, will have to be wound up due to the cuts programmed for the next funding round.

A group of South African aid organizations, led by Doctors without Borders, has described the situation of the GF as a 'shock,' adding that the cuts could destroy the progress made over the past decade.

'It is criminal that, precisely at the point at which we are gaining control of the epidemic and are able to treat an increasing number of those affected, we are witness to a massive decline in financing that could set us back years,' the group said in Johannesburg.

At last count, the GF was paying for 70 per cent of the anti-retroviral medication being distributed in Africa - the drugs used to treat HIV patients.

'It is true that countries like Italy and Spain are unable to meet their debt payments, but we are more concerned about the total economic situation in the eurozone and the United States,' Christoph Benn, external relations director for the GF, told dpa.

'For this reason we saw it as more honest to draw the attention of the recipient countries to the problem.'

While the continuation of the programmes was not in immediate jeopardy, recipient countries should dampen their hopes of new and expanded programmes, he said.

One solution could be to ask rapidly industrializing countries like China and India to meet similar obligations.

'These countries are posting constant economic growth, while the traditional donor countries are battling financial problems,' says Professor Alan Whiteside, head of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.

Whiteside is convinced that the future funding of the HIV/AIDS programmes will be 'right at the top of the agenda' in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopian Health Minister Tewodros Adhanom said recently: 'There are only a few years until we should reach the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of AIDS by 2015.

'Despite the crisis, the world can afford to provide funds at the same level, if not even more.'

More than 1,000 separate meetings are scheduled to take place during the 16th ICASA, which is being held under the motto: 'Own, Scale-up and Sustain.'

The number of new HIV cases is declining in 22 sub-Saharan countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations' HIV/AIDS programme. Nevertheless, the devastating disease continues to hang over millions of lives on the continent.

'Africa remains the epicentre of the epidemic,' Adhanom said. Without generous funding from the international community to keep up the fight, the future looks bleak for the continent's AIDS sufferers.