World community reducing medical disaster relief funds at a criticaltime

New York - Doctors Without Borders, Sandra Murillo - GHN Ed - Germany and Italy are reducing contributions to the Global Fund to fund humanitarian medical relief, which concerns international organizations given the increase in help needed from major disasters.

As Italy and Germany reduce their contributions, other countries contributions to global health have also declined.  Disaster-ridden countries are in dire need of help just as these reductions have occurred.

Country
contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
(GFATM), to be announced at next week’s donor replenishment meeting in
New York, are expected to fall far short of the $20 billion needed for
the Fund to maintain and expand its grant programs, the international
medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) warned today. The news comes as a World Health
Organization (WHO) report released today shows how implementing better
AIDS treatment for more people can only happen if adequate financial
support is provided through funding mechanisms such as the Global Fund.

Two-thirds
of all international funding for malaria and TB, and nearly a quarter
of funding for fighting AIDS, is channeled through the Global Fund. The
Fund estimates that if its target of $20 billion over three years were
achieved, 7.5 million people would receive antiretroviral therapy, up
from 2.5 million supported by the GFATM at the end of 2009.

“Thanks
to the contribution of the Global Fund, countries like Malawi have been
able to initiate programs that save lives and rebuild communities
devastated by AIDS,” said Marielle Bemelmans, MSF head of mission in
Malawi, where MSF works together with the Ministry of Health in programs
that treat 38,000 people. “But over 200,000 people are still in need of
HIV treatment in Malawi alone – and ten million people are in urgent
need worldwide. If donors miss this opportunity and fail to engage in
the fight against the AIDS epidemic, we’ll be throwing away all the
significant gains already made.”

New WHO guidelines recommend
countries to put people on treatment earlier, and to provide them with
better and less toxic—albeit more expensive–drugs.  An under-funded
Global Fund will prevent implementation of the WHO guidelines, thereby
altering the scope and direction of the global AIDS response for years
to come.

If the current funding situation continues, patients
will be left with fewer options as the global response to HIV will
increasingly fall on smaller private programs, such as those run by
MSF. 

Germany, the third largest donor after the United States
and France, poses the greatest threat to the Fund’s replenishment. There
are plans within the German government to cut its contribution by
two-thirds, possibly even ending its contributions to the Fund by the
end of 2011.  Italy is likely to not pledge any funds at all.

Other
countries have announced only modest increases. At the same time,
bilateral programs such as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief are also facing flat funding in the years ahead. Major donors,
including the United States, must come to the replenishment conference
with strong contributions to ensure the Fund’s continued functioning. 

“Just
last week at the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit, countries
reaffirmed commitments to reduce childhood deaths and maternal mortality
and to 'redouble efforts' to achieve universal access to HIV/AIDS
treatment and prevention," said Sophie Delaunay, executive director of
MSF-USA. “How can they reconcile their stated commitments with reduced
or flatlined contributions to the Global Fund, a crucial player in the

fight against HIV, malaria and TB?”