Posts tagged global fund
It’s very good news that the Global Fund is re-opening for business. Now we can stop wasting time, which is the most precious resource in this fight against HIV, TB and malaria, because wasting time is wasting lives. The new funding window at the Global Fund needs to be opened as soon as possible, be as big as possible, and be open to all affected countries to support treatment scale-up. Now is not the time to be conservative and keep money in the bank that could go toward getting life-saving pills into peoples’ bodies.
More Than 500 People March in Nairobi to Demand Donors Keep Their Promises
Like these demonstrators, MSF calls on the Global Fund and donors to immediately raise the resources necessary for the minimum lifeline the Fund has extended to countries otherwise facing disruptions this year, as well as providing a new regular funding opportunity.
“Ten years ago, there was a landmark decision to support the roll out of HIV, TB, and malaria prevention and treatment in countries that couldn’t completely support programs on their own,” said Dr. Jennifer Cohn, of MSF Access Campaign in East Africa. “MSF has been part of the effort over the last decade to treat patients, introduce new treatments, and develop simple ways to deliver them. We have seen the positive impact of the Global Fund and other international health initiatives on individuals and communities, with deaths and sickness plummeting.”
Read the Press Release from MSF regarding their response to the Global Fund’s announcement.
Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
8. Stuck in The Middle: Drug Companies Push Up Prices for Patients in Middle-Income Countries
People living with HIV in middle-income countries like India, Brazil or Thailand are facing huge hikes in the costs of AIDS medicines—at a time when the pharmaceutical industry sees these countries as potentially lucrative markets for high-priced drugs, and “blockbuster” drugs go off-patent in wealthy countries.
This year, a number of drug companies confirmed an ongoing trend by refusing to extend standardized price discounts to middle-income countries—something which was previously routine practice. ViiV, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbott all now specifically exclude middle-income countries from standardized price discounts for some or all of their drugs. Countries are thus forced to negotiate on a case-by-case basis, which is likely to lead to higher prices.
This move ignores the fact that the majority of people in middle-income countries can’t afford to pay high prices for medicines. To add to the problem, these countries are now losing the support from global health mechanisms like the Global Fund.
Photo: India 2009 © Sami Siva
Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
3. Progress in the Fight Against HIV, TB, and Malaria Under Threat as Health Funding Falters
Donor support to fight diseases that hit the poor hardest has been waning for a while, but the announcement by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in November that it was cancelling its annual funding round because donors had not paid up was nonetheless a shock.
Countries will now have to wait until 2014—at the earliest—before they can receive new funds to put more people on treatment for HIV or drug-resistant TB, or roll out diagnostic tests for malaria, for example. The Fund has put a stop-gap solution in place that can prevent treatment interruptions in the meantime, but it’s one that leaves countries hanging on the thinnest of lifelines.
Photo: South Africa 2011 © Samantha Reinders
2011 marks the ten-year anniversary of two events that have helped shape people’s ability in developing countries to access quality, affordable medical care.
First, the signing of the Doha Declaration, in which governments affirmed the need to prioritize health over trade: access to affordable medicines over intellectual property rights. Second, is the decision to create a “war chest” to fight the developing world’s biggest killer diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Through the Global Fund, unprecedented levels of donor money were channeled towards saving lives. But a decade later, the struggle to access medicines in developing countries continues and global health is suffering from a sudden shortfall in funding, as donor countries leave the Fund in dire financial straights.
These are some of the barriers to medical care that people in developing countries encounter every day. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’s (MSF) Access Campaign was created just over ten years ago in order to try, with others, to bring down some of these barriers that restricted our ability as a medical humanitarian organization to give patients the best care we can. Read the Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
Photo: Kenya 2011 © Bruno De Cock/MSF
In my work with MSF, I have seen people die from AIDS, from TB, and from malaria. But in recent years, I have most of all seen people survive these diseases. The Global Fund is a crucial part of the most ambitious health project in history, and millions of people alive today are testimony to its success. We simply can’t afford to squander the opportunity we have now to deal these diseases a final blow.
The United States has helped to save millions of lives through the support of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
But right now, Congress is holding meetings on cuts to the White House’s 2012 budget request for global health funding. Their decisions could jeopardize the lives of millions of people who need access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Photo: Kenya 2005 © Brendan Bannon
Not only is [treatment] the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do.
Although foreign-aid spending represents about 1 percent of the federal budget, its impact on global health is measured in millions of lives saved. And while foreign-aid cuts would have a negligible impact on our nation’s balance sheet, the impact on developing nations fighting disease and poverty will be measured in tens of thousands of lives lost.
According to the American Foundation for AIDS Research, for every 5 percent reduction in global-health funding, 182,000 people with HIV/AIDS will lose access to lifesaving treatment.
Let’s not shoot the wheels off the ambulance just as we are beginning to see the investment pay off.
If ministries of health do not receive stable and predictable funding, there is no way that organizations like MSF will be able to fill the gaps.
In some countries where we work, the authorities were already struggling against the odds to provide HIV treatment even before the cuts were announced. In Zimbabwe, for instance, the country is already relying on buffer stocks to cover drug shortages.
It will be possible to continue expanding treatment on a very small scale, through efficiency measures and innovative ways of delivering care. But no ambitious expansion of treatment for the three diseases, of the sort needed right now, will be achieved without new substantial funding
In a move that could have a profound impact on patients in developing countries, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria has announced it won’t be accepting any grant applications this year to support treatment programs because of a catastrophic drop in donor funding.
The Global Fund, financed largely by governments, was set up 10 years ago as a ‘war chest’ to fight the spiralling AIDS pandemic and tackle malaria and TB, the other two infectious diseases that claim millions of lives each year in the developing world.
In many countries, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works alongside national health authorities who rely on the Global Fund support to deliver lifesaving treatment in their countries. These countries cannot pay the full amount needed to cover treatment costs for these three diseases. Last week’s announcement from the Global Fund has therefore caused widespread concern and some panic. Read more
Photo: Zimbabwe 2011 © Brendan Bannon
Today marks a sad turning point in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria, as world leaders have officially under-financed The Global Fund. This decision will result in the death of millions of people from otherwise treatable disease.
MSF’s Dr. Jennifer Cohn speaks on the inevitable consequences of the underfinancing of the Global Fund by world leaders.
Article on why this underfinancing will put millions at risk.