Landmarks get red lights as Aids Day
Global prevention, treatment and funding at a turning point
Women in Eritrea learn about Aids (photo ©2011 The Global Fund / Didier Ruef )
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Red lights are shining today on several world landmarks, including the Empire State Building and Stock Exchange in New York and the Sydney Opera House in Australia, to mark World Aids Day. The day has been noted officially since 1988, making it 23 years since we woke up to the reality that action on a massive scale was needed to stop the killer disease.
Funding was organized over the years, treatment and prevention research were stepped up, and patients began to find help. The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva says that HIV infections fell by 15 percent in the past decade and Aids-related deaths fell by 22 percent.
The improvements came about largely because of better access to treatment and drugs, but just as hope has been growing, the global economic crises of the past three years are threatening to bite into that progress, the WHO and the Geneva-based Global Fund note.
And a number of groups remain at risk: teenage girls, drug users, men who have sex with men and babies born to women with HIV.
On the bright side, there is clear progress, says the WHO:
Indigenous people in the Amazons region of four bordering countries in the Americas, benefit from malaria programmes sponsored by the Global Fund - Photo Jared Bloch
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Geneva-based Global Fund’s grants for programmes that fight tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-Aids have gotten a US$1 billion boost for the 2011 fiscal year. The announcement was made on 18 April by the Vernier based headquarters.
Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director, said he was “grateful” to President Barack Obama and to the US Congress for the “vote of confidence in the Global Fund and for [their] unwavering commitment to international health, even when facing strong pressure to contain budget deficits.”
The grant is particularly significant for the Global Fund which had been under heavy public scrutiny since an article published in early January 2011 alledged the organization was “plagued by fraud.”
Media ramp-up of the story resulted in Germany, Ireland and other donor countries suspending funding to the health fund. In the US the story was picked up by conservative groups which called for a halt of donations to the organization.
In 1999, a UN Special Assembly on Aids agreed on the need for a fund to gather and distribute monies to fight three diseases: tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-Aids. In 2002 the Global Fund was thus created as a private-public partnership to disperse billions of dollars to over 600 programmes in 150 countries.
Supporters come to its defense, saying record one of best against corruption
UNDP administrator Helen Clark meets with Dr Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, March, 2010: UNDP oversees 12% of the Gobal Fund's disbursements (photo: UNDP)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-based Global Fund’s grants for programmes that fight tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-Aids have been under public scrutiny since the Associated Press’s new man in town took the group to task 23 January over alleged cases of fraud.
“Fraud plagues global health fund backed by celebrities”, AP’s story by chief correspondent in Geneva John Heilprin was based largely on information that the Global Fund had published in press releases in October and earlier, and that had been picked up by specialist publications.
Some 200 US media outlets, including Fox News, ran AP’s two-part story, and it was picked up outside the US as well.
AP is a non-profit news cooperative, owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members, that distributes content to its members.
Heilprin, an investigative reporter, was appointed AP’s chief news reporter in December 2010, following the death of longtime bureau chief Sandy Higgins in August.
The announcement by AP in December said that Heilprin would “use his background in investigative journalism to increase the AP’s use of public records in its coverage of Europe.”
The story’s headline shifted into “Global Fund . . . rife with fraud” on some web sites.
Global Fund says AP story “seriously misrepresented” fraud problem
The Global Fund came back with a sharp reply to his articles 24 January, with Michel Kazatchkine, executive director, saying the stories had “seriously misrepresented the extent of fraud” and that “one should keep in mind that this amount represents 0.3 percent of the total amount of $13 billion disbursed to countries by the Global Fund so far.”
© WHO 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - India’s mortality rate due to malaria may be 13 times higher than reported, according to a study published in The Lancet 21 October, casting doubts on the validity of malaria deaths figures world-wide. The study estimates that 205,000 people may in fact be dying of malaria every year in India, due to incorrect diagnoses, especially in poor rural areas and at a distance from health centres.
The World Health Organization (WHO) statistics count 15,000 people who die of malaria in India each year. The Geneva-based WHO disputes the numbers, according to the BBC, saying they are far too high and that some criteria for inclusion, such as high fever, are not necessarily accurate.
WHO vaccination campaign. © WHO 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fight against Aids and HIV infection world-wide has chalked up some significant successes, including access to treatment for 80 percent of the HIV-positive women in need in 15 countries in 2009, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released 28 September.
One million more people started anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in sub-Saharan Africa in 2009, and now 37 percent of the people in need there are receiving treatment. But funding still falls short and the organization fears that government budget cuts will translate into less support in coming years.
“Countries in all parts of the world are demonstrating that universal access is achievable,” said Hiroki Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases. Medecins sans Frontières (MSF), a French medical emergency organization, fears that countries will announce important cuts in funding to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM) at a funds replenishment conference in New York next week.
The Fund’s target of $20 billion over three years is unlikely to be met, according to MSF. One-quarter of worldwide Aids funding goes through GFATM, says MSF.
“We’re on the right track, we’ve shown what works and now we need to do more of it,” said Paul De Lay, deputy executive director, UNAids. “But we’re $10 billion short. At the Global Fund replenishment conference in New York next week countries have a chance to put this right, to make a smart investment and secure the future of the Aids response.”
Links to other sites: Global Fund, UNAids
Gold Disc Swiss artist Shana P singing her latest single “Regarde moi.” Students at Webster afterwards released 250 red and white bio balloons, as a symbol of solidarity and support to those living with HIV/Aids. Members of the Student Government Association handed out free condoms and information about HIV testing services in Geneva and nearby France.
(Video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World Aids Day 1 December brought some good news, starting with a change of policy in South Africa, whose president said the country will now start treating all children with Aids. South Africa for several years denied the extent of its Aids problem and Tuesday’s announcement by President Jacob Zuma was greeted positively by Aids groups around the world.
Geneva is home to several organizations that work closely with Aids/HIV projects, from research to financing programmes, developing treatments and humanitarian assistance. World Aids Day Tuesday was observed in a variety of ways, from students at Webster University setting off balloons and attending a charity concert to the Global Fund for Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis publishing its latest figures.
