XVIII International AIDS Conference by UN AIDS / Reuters / MSF 9:24pm 18th Jul, 2010   The International AIDS Conference is the premier gathering for those working in the field of HIV, as well as policy makers, persons living with HIV and other individuals committed to ending the pandemic. It is a chance to assess where we are, evaluate recent scientific developments and lessons learnt, and collectively chart a course forward.    Given the 2010 deadline for universal access set by world leaders, AIDS 2010 will coincide with a major push for expanded access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. With a global economic crisis threatening to undermine public investments, the conference will help keep HIV on the front burner, and is a chance to demonstrate the importance of continued HIV investments to broader health and development goals. AIDS 2010 is also an opportunity to highlight the critical connection between human rights and HIV; a dialogue begun in earnest in Mexico City in 2008.The selection of the AIDS 2010 host city is a reflection of the central role Vienna has played in bridging Eastern and Western Europe, and will allow for an examination of the epidemic’s impact in Eastern Europe.    18 July 2010    Money worries, "broken promises" at AIDS conference. (Reuters)    The United Nations and the world"s largest backer of programmes against HIV/AIDS said on Sunday they feared wealthy donor nations may cut funding to fight the disease because of global recession.    Speaking at the start of an international gathering of some 20,000 AIDS activists, scientists and HIV patients in Vienna, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised progress made against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, but said this could be jeopardised if governments trimmed budgets.    "Some governments are cutting back on their response to AIDS. This should be a cause for great concern to us all," he told the conference via videolink from New York.    Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it needed up to $20 billion in the next three years to sustain progress.    "I am hugely afraid. I am very concerned," he told reporters at the Vienna conference. "Because of the (global financial) crisis ... because of the competing priorities."    "I hear of many governments cutting official development aid, but I hear other governments saying that despite cuts in other areas, foreign assistance will remain -- and I also hear other governments with good news. It is very up and down."    As he spoke, hundreds of protesters marched through the conference centre demanding that rich nations deliver on their promise that all those in needs of AIDS drugs should get them.    The Global Fund, set up in 2001, raises donor money every three years and in 2007 secured $10 billion for the 2008-2010 period. The next replenishment meeting is on October 5 in New York and cover the years 2011 to 2013.    "I can"t believe we will get less, and I can"t believe we will be flatlining, but the question is how much more we will get than we got in 2007," Kazatchkine said.    A report published at the conference by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) found that overall support for global AIDS effort from donor nations flattened out last year in the midst of global economic crisis.    In 2009, the Group of Eight leading wealthy nations, the European Commission and other donor governments provided $7.6 billion for AIDS relief in developing nations, compared with $7.7 billion disbursed in 2008, it said.    The AIDS virus has infected 33.4 million people -- many of them in Africa -- and is transmitted during sex, in blood and on needles and in breast milk. It gradually wears down the immune system and can take years to cause symptoms. It has killed 25 million people since the early 1980s.    Kazatchkine said its funding for AIDS, which accounts for around half the fund"s spending, was split into three areas -- treatment, prevention and health infrastructure for delivery.    A study published earlier on Sunday found that treating HIV patients with cocktails of drugs not only can help them live longer, but can also be a powerful way of limiting the spread of the incurable virus.    If the Global Fund manages to get its hoped-for $20 billion dollars for the next three years, Kazatchkine said millions of lives could be saved with HIV treatment and tens of millions of new infections could be prevented.    He also said mother-to-child transmission of HIV could be "virtually eliminated", and HIV treatment and testing services could be provided for many more marginalised groups such as sex workers, drug addicts and men who have sex with men.    World leaders set this year as a deadline for universal access to treatment for all HIV/AIDS patients who need it, but the head of the International AIDS Society Julio Montaner echoed the tone of protesters, who shouted "broken promises kill".    Montaner rebuked politicians for failing to deliver on their promise, saying that only a third of the 15 million people who need potentially life-saving AIDS drugs currently get them.    "Today we have treatments that work, we have shown that this can be done ... what we need now is the political will to go the extra mile to deliver on universal access," he said.    "We have a serious problem with the political leadership globally and we have to fix it."    Over 2 million people live with HIV in the European Union and its neighbouring countries. The number of diagnosed infections has been increasing. The rights of people living with HIV and those at risk of infection must be central to the response to the epidemic, stressed the Fundamental Rights Agency today, ahead of the World Aids Conference 2010.    "People living with HIV are confronted with discrimination in employment, healthcare, education and housing. People living with HIV must be legally protected from discrimination", emphasised Morten Kjaerum, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) ahead of the World AIDS Conference.    "In particular, access to healthcare must be guaranteed for everyone, if we want to stop the spread of the epidemic. The Fundamental Rights Agency recommends that HIV testing should be anonymous and free for all", Morten Kjaerum concluded.    May 2010    Donor retreat widens HIV/AIDS treatment gap in Africa says Médecins Sans Frontières.    Backtracking by international donors in funding HIV/AIDS risks undermining years of positive achievements and will cause many more unnecessary deaths, warns humanitarian aid group Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in a new report.    Titled No time to quit: HIV/AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa, the report builds on analyses made in eight sub-Saharan countries to illustrate 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 and antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) over the past year and a half.    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.    The US Presidents 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).    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.    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 has been cut six-fold. Already fragile health systems will become increasingly strained by an increasing patient load requiring more intensive care.    Drug stock-outs and disruptions in drug supply are already a reality, and will become more frequent if sufficient funding is not made available. MSF has recently been requested by the government and other actors to assist with emergency drug supplies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, DRC, Kenya and Uganda.    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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