Do we have to chose between funding for AIDS, TB and… the A(H1NI) flu virus?

[14 August 2009 - 12h19]

Though shouted down by militants from AIDS associations committed to their cause, the politicians heckled at the IAS Conference in Cape Town probably didn’t come off too badly. These demonstrations were, however, unusual in that they were actively taken up by the conference-goers themselves! Their words were more measured, but no less vigorous.

Michel Kazatchkine, for example, expressed his dismay at the difficulties facing the Global Fund from 2011. “We have to find dozens of billions of dollars, not the thousands of billions mobilised against the economic crisis”, stated the executive director at one meeting. “Yet the G8 has not released anything for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; nothing for vaccinations or the mother-child policy”.

The A(H1N1) pandemic is obviously a formidable competitor in the race for funding … Michel Kazatchkine is concerned though “to see a divide appearing again between North and South. Science is advancing, diagnostic techniques are progressing, needs are growing” … and the funding is not following.

“We need to increase (the latter) at least threefold in the next two years to maintain our objectives and prevent tuberculosis reaching uncontrollable proportions”, added Claude Moatti from Marseille. This specialist in the economic and social science of health drove the message home: “The American government has spent 150 billion dollars on saving AIG. A third of what it has already spent to deal with the crisis in the North, would have been enough to increase tenfold the whole of the health budget up to 2015…” But the equation cannot really be set out in these terms. Not really.

But how can one take issue with this researcher when he explains his disappointment. “Now that significant progress has been registered in public health, it is a great pity that politicians at the highest level are surrendering to the trend of the moment. All the IAS leaders indicated that the last G8 Summit was a scandal. Yet these were not leftists. It is shocking that the word AIDS does not even appear in the final press release!”

Source : from our special correspondents at the 5th IAS Conference, Cape Town, 19-22 July 2009; Professor Michel Kazatchkine, 21 July 2009; Professor Jean-Claude Moatti, 22 July 2009.

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