Inadequate international funding for HIV/AIDS and neglected diseases as well as global malnutrition were among the top 10 humanitarian crises outlined in an annual report issued Monday by Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Associated Press reports (Astor, 12/21).
MSF said "years of success in increasing treatment for people with HIV/AIDS" could be jeapordized "because of cuts or limits to funding in international programmes," the Mail & Guardian reports. "Just when more and more people were accessing crucial medicines and medical experts were acknowledging the need to put people on treatment sooner, patients will be turned away from clinics because the funding just won't be there," Christophe Fournier, the MSF international council president said. "The timing could not be worse" (12/22).
The AP continues: "Since pledging to support universal AIDS treatment coverage by 2010 at the G8 Summit in Scotland in 2005, many countries, including the United States, have announced plans to reduce or limit funding, Sophie Delaunay, of MSF, said. 'In some countries doctors are turning patients away, advised to wait until other patients die,' she warned. 'What's going to happen is that patients are going to show up at the door of our clinics and there is a high possibility of us getting overwhelmed'" (12/21).
For more information, see the website of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
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