Aids workers in Africa fear fund cuts

12 February 2009

Figures released by the United Nations Aids programme show that while HIV infection rates in Africa have slowed since the start of the decade, statistics still make very grim reading on the worst affected continent – of the global total of 2.1 million deaths due to AIDS in 2007, 1.6 million were in sub-Saharan Africa.

An estimated 1.7 million people were infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007, compared to 2.2 million new infections in 2001. And there are now fears that progress could be knocked off course by the global financial crisis, potentially reducing the funds from Western donors for fighting the disease and providing treatment.

In a speech in a South African township this week, Michel Sidibe, the newly appointed head of the UN agency UNAIDS, noted that though "the world has a responsibility to stabilise the market failure, the same world has a moral responsibility to make sure that four million people who are on (HIV) treatment will continue to have treatment, and six million more will have access to treatment."

An official from the Global Call to Action against Poverty said recently that Kenya had already been asked by one donor to fund HIV and tuberculosis programme itself. Other donors, such as Oxfam, have said they fear the financial crisis will lead to funding cuts as developed countries have other priorities – such as saving their financial systems.

UNAIDS says it needs about $25 billion to ensure universal access to HIV treatment by 2010. It says interrupting funding could lead to millions of deaths in Africa.

Detailed figures about AIDS in Africa are rather dismal. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for more than two thirds of all people living with HIV globally. Of the global total of 2.1 million adult and child deaths due to AIDS in 2007, 1.6 million occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.