STOP AIDS NOW! raises alarm in a report launched today on World AIDS Day
As a result of the economic crisis there is considerably less money available in Africa to fight the AIDS epidemic. This is either due to decreased government revenues, household incomes and donor funding. 3.8 million HIV-positive Africans who need treatment right now, will have to wait even longer. The threat exists that this waiting list will turn into a death list. Especially in a time of economic recession, wealthy countries need to live up to their commitment. If they fail to do so, they are breaking their promise to provide more HIV positive people in developing countries with AIDS treatment. This is stated by STOP AIDS NOW! in their report ‘The Real Victims of the Economic Crisis live in Africa’. Starting today, the organization commences a nationwide campaign calling on the Dutch public to support the AIDS response, especially in this time of crisis.
Serious consequences
In the summer of 2009, UNAIDS reported that 22 out of 71 developing countries foresee an impact by the economic crisis on the AIDS response in their country. This instigated STOP AIDS NOW! to inquire about the situation among its AIDS projects and organizations in Africa. The conclusion is that the fight against AIDS is moving in the wrong direction. Some clinics report that they are not enrolling any new patients with HIV. Patients that are lucky enough to receive treatment are facing other problems caused by the economic crisis: they have less money to pay for food or transportation to their clinic. A nutritional diet is a crucial part of effective AIDS treatment. On an empty stomach, the medicines are very hard to endure. STOP AIDS NOW! is more and more handing out food packages to families. Also the organization is providing transport to the clinic.
Successes achieved over the last years are being destroyed
The larger the number of people without treatment, the more severe the impact will be: increased deaths, loss of jobs and income; and increased poverty. The AIDS epidemic will hit societies all over again. AIDS treatment suppresses the amount of virus present in the human body, which decreases the chances of new infections. By increasing the number of people on treatment, more new HIV infections can be prevented. That is one of the reasons why it is so important that the 3.8 million people that need treatment today, will get access to medication. ‘We were on the right track’, says Louise van Deth, executive director of STOP AIDS NOW! ‘In 2008 a record number of 825.000 people in Africa started with AIDS treatment, which means that almost 3 million Africans are getting AIDS treatment. This causes the annual number of AIDS deaths to decrease and fewer babies are being born HIV positive. Since 2001 more than 200.000 children’s lives have been saved thanks to AIDS treatment. Cutting funds for HIV/AIDS now, will jeopardize and destroy all the investments and successes we achieved over the last few years. We need your support to stop this from happening’.
Wealthy countries are turning their eyes away
The wealthy countries have agreed that everyone in the world will have access to AIDS treatment by 2010. The donor countries are now using the economic crisis as an argument not to provide the funds that are needed to make sure that AIDS treatment is available to everyone who needs it. The largest financer of AIDS treatment, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has not one dollar left in its account. The American PEPFAR, another important fund, recently decided not to expand its activities. This means that people who are now on a waiting list, will not be receiving life saving treatment.
Netherlands
Even the Netherlands is cutting its HIV/AIDS spending. STOP AIDS NOW! wants the Dutch government to keep its promise to people living with HIV in developing countries. STOP AIDS NOW! executive-director Louise van Deth: ‘Everyone has the right to live and thus a right to AIDS treatment. An economic crisis should not, and must not, change that right’.
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