Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC)
28 September 2007
Donors Pledge $9.7B for Global Fund at Berlin Conference
Governments and private donors on Thursday pledged $9.7 billion to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at a conference in Berlin, Germany, the New York Times reports (McNeil, New York Times, 9/28). The Global Fund said it hoped to raise about $8 billion at the conference, although it will need between $12 billion and $18 billion to fund its existing programs and launch new ones between 2008 and 2010, according to Global Fund spokesperson Jon Liden (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 9/26).
Kofi Annan, former United Nations secretary-general and conference chair, said the $9.7 billion in pledges includes "conservative" projections from Canada, Japan and the U.S. because the budgetary process prevents those countries from making pledges beyond one year, Reuters Africa reports. "These countries have indicated they will increase their contributions," Annan said (Chambers, Reuters Africa, 9/27).
Pledges
The U.S. committed to maintain its current contribution level, which would amount to $2.2 billion over three years, until lawmakers pass a new budget, the Times reports. Japan plans to announce its pledge -- which would be $184 million or more -- when it hosts the Group of Eight industrialized nations 2008 summit (New York Times, 9/28). Canada has not released a pledge but is expected to give $375 million, the Associated Press reports (Froehlich, Associated Press, 9/27).
At the conference, Germany said it would give 600 million euros, or about $850 million. Spain contributed 424 million euros, or about $600 million, which is almost triple its current contribution levels, AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 9/27). Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, said his country would contribute 93 million Australian dollars, or about $82 million, to the fund programs through 2009 (AAP/West Australian, 9/27). According to Annan, France pledged $1.7 billion, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $300 million.
Other contributors included China with $6 million, India with $7 million, Italy with $551 million, the Netherlands with $325 million, Norway with $240 million and Russia with $217 million. "Some countries cannot pledge or cannot pledge fully," Annan said, adding that he expects pledges to "go up considerably" (Associated Press, 9/27).
Reaction
Annan said, "This is a good day for global health, for millions of poor people who are affected" by HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. He added that another meeting that aims to bring total pledges to $12 billion to $18 billion would take place in early 2009.
According to Reuters Africa, some global health advocates said the pledges fell short of the Global Fund's long-term needs. "We were promised a war chest to fight three diseases but what we have got today demonstrates a weakening of nerve," Steve Cockburn of the Stop AIDS Campaign said. He added that the Global Fund was promised funding would triple in order to expand its programs but the amount donated is only enough to continue existing projects. Oliver Buston, European director of DATA, said that "pledges beyond 2008 don't yet reflect" that HIV/AIDS "infection rates are still rising fast, especially in Africa" (Reuters Africa, 9/27).
HIV/AIDS Specialist Presses World Bank To Address Evidence of Allegedly Faulty HIV Diagnostic Kits Used in Public Health Centers in India
HIV/AIDS specialist Kunal Saha, who was commissioned by the World Bank earlier this year to investigate an HIV-prevention program in India, is calling on the bank to address evidence that some hospitals and blood banks allegedly were using faulty diagnostic test kits to screen for HIV, the Washington Post reports.
Saha, a professor at Ohio State University, traveled to India as a bank consultant on a team investigating potential problems with the $230 million AIDS control project funded by the World Bank between 1999 and 2006, according to the Post. Saha and two India-based medical specialists in March and April visited hospitals and blood banks in major cities, gathering lab documents that Saha said indicate the facilities were using defective diagnostic testing kits. He cited 2004 and 2005 test results from two Indian hospitals in which blood samples that were known to be HIV-positive tested negative during a second, confirmatory test performed with defective kits, according to the Post. Saha said he found a document suggesting that questionable kits were available for use as late as April despite public statements from Indian health workers and World Bank officials in the country that defective test kits were no longer available.
The bank has not released a draft report from the visit by Saha and the other two doctors, according to the Post. According to a copy of an April 26 e-mail, the draft notes that there were significant quality issues with HIV tests at blood banks and testing centers between 2003 and 2006. Saha said he discussed the matter with former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz before he left the bank and in August briefed staff members at the bank about his concerns. This year, bank officials approved an additional $250 million to a new HIV program in association with India's National AIDS Control Organization after regarding the previous program as "satisfactory," the Post reports.
"If people are getting HIV because of defective test kits, it's horrendous, it's unthinkable," Saha said in a telephone interview.
Reaction
Kees Kostermans, the World Bank's lead public health specialist in South Asia, on Thursday said the bank's report on the issue will not be released for at least two months; however, he said the bank has no specific evidence that faulty diagnostic tests had led to the spread of HIV in the country. Kostermans added that NACO officials said defective kits had been removed from health facilities and none remained in use. Kostermans said, "It is in nobody's interest to have poor-quality test kits."
Beatrice Edwards, who monitors World Bank operations for the Government Accountability Project and is assisting Saha, called for stricter monitoring and a rapid public accounting of the problems. "If there's any project in the portfolio that needs to be monitored and where the equipment needs to be safeguarded, this is it," Edwards said (Johnson, Washington Post, 9/28)..
Mozambique Archbishop Chimoio Says European-Made Condoms, Antiretrovirals Tainted With HIV
Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Mozambique, on Wednesday said that two European countries are manufacturing condoms that deliberately have been tainted with HIV as part of a plan to "colonize the continent," Reuters reports. Chimoio declined to name the countries or identify the source of the allegations. In addition, Chimoio said that some pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing antiretroviral drugs that are tainted with the virus "in order to finish quickly the African people" (Mangwiro, Reuters, 9/26).
Chimoio said that abstinence is the best way to prevent HIV. He added that a "new mentality" is necessary to fight HIV/AIDS in Mozambique. "It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives ... (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations," Chimoio said.
Chimoio's comments have upset some HIV/AIDS advocates, BBC News reports. "We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," Marcella Mahanjane, a Mozambican HIV/AIDS advocate, said. Gabe Judas -- director of Tchivirika, a drama group that promotes awareness about HIV/AIDS -- said that condoms are "one of the best ways of getting protection against" HIV/AIDS.
According to BBC News, about 17.5% of Mozambicans are Catholic (BBC News, 9/26). According to London's Guardian, Chimoio is "widely respected" in Mozambique, in part because of his work as a mediator during a 16-year civil war, which ended in 1992 (McGreal, Guardian, 9/27). More than 16% of the 19 million people living in Mozambique are HIV-positive, and about 500 new cases are recorded daily, Reuters reports (Reuters, 9/26).
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