allAfrica.com: Africa: Daily HIV/Aids Report (Page 1 of 3)

Global Challenges

Global Fund Might Consider Loans for Countries That Become Too Wealthy To Qualify for Grants, Executive Director Says

[May 05, 2008]

The Global Fund To Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria might begin extending loans to countries that become too wealthy to qualify for grants, Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine said Sunday at an HIV/AIDS conference in Moscow, Reuters reports. Kazatchkine said that by including a loan repayment program in its mandate, the Global Fund could help increasingly wealthy countries that do not yet have the infrastructure to effectively fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. "To us it's important that when the world's money for aid is being distributed, it not only takes into account economic factors but also, for example, burden of disease," Kazatchkine said.

The Global Fund has committed $1.2 billion to Eastern Europe and Central Asia through to 2010, about 55% of which is going to fight HIV/AIDS. Ten countries from the regions -- including Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey -- will not be eligible for Global Fund grants by the end of 2009 because they will be classified as upper-income countries, Reuters reports.

Kazatchkine said there has been significant progress in developing nongovernmental organizations in the two regions. However, some advocates worry that without Global Fund financing, NGOs could be marginalized by governments, Reuters reports. "These are societies" in which the "relationship between public sector and the nongovernmental sectors haven't been established and do not run as smoothly as Western societies," Kazatchkine said.

According to Kazatchkine, Russia set the precedent for the possibility of including loans in the Global Fund's work. The country in 2006 pledged to repay 80% of its $320 million Global Fund grant. "What I'm saying is that with the Russian example, we may find ways of basically a free loan that would allow these countries to access resources now but also behave as a donor," Kazatchkine said.

Kazatchkine also said that Kazakhstan could benefit from a Global Fund loan. The country's economy has grown rapidly during the last 10 years, but it still is experiencing an increase in HIV/AIDS cases. Kazakhstan has received more than $67 million in Global Fund grants in previous years. "The challenge for Kazakhstan is how to manage in the future," Kazatchkine said, adding, "I wonder whether we couldn't consider, as an international community, whether Kazakhstan instead of not being eligible at all in the future could potentially be eligible but then commit to reimburse by 2015 or 2020 or whatever."

According to Reuters, the annual number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia regions has declined from 210,000 in 2001 to about 150,000 in 2007 (Kilner, Reuters, 5/4).

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More Women Than Men Sought Services at Uganda's AIDS Support Organization in 2007, Report Says

[May 05, 2008]

More women than men in Uganda sought services of the AIDS Support Organization, or TASO, according to a recently released TASO report, Uganda's Weekly Observer reports. TASO provides HIV testing and counseling, as well as antiretroviral drugs and other HIV/AIDS-related services.

According to the report, of the nearly 60,000 people who received counseling at TASO clinics, about 42,000 were women and about 18,000 were men. The group registered 23,800 new clients last year at its 11 clinics -- 15,323 women and 8,477 men -- the report found. Robert Nakibumba, a TASO spokesperson, said that TASO's finding that more women than men sought HIV/AIDS services reflects an international trend and could be in part because "women are free and own up to responsibilities more than men." The report found that men were more responsive to television, radio and theater dramas aimed at educating people about the disease.

Other Findings

Among the new clients registered last year, 8,000 were ages 20 to 51, and less than 1,000 were older than age 60, the report said. About 55% of TASO's new clients are from rural areas. About 91% of people who received counseling shared their HIV status with friends, relatives or neighbors. About 97% of roughly 26,000 TASO clients who were sexually active discussed their HIV status with someone else, and 31% told their sexual partners.

The report found that about 8,000 of the 27,000 clients screened for antiretroviral eligibility in 2007 were eligible for treatment; however, many people did not adhere to their treatment regimens. Only 323 children enrolled in the TASO's antiretroviral program, the report said, noting that there are inadequate testing services for children and an "unwillingness of some parents and guardians to take their children for [antiretroviral] screening" (Mubangizi, Weekly Observer, 5/1).

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