The Fight against HIV/AIDS - A decidedly mixed picture but more good than bad.

By John Kiwanuka Ssemakula, Wednesday, May 28, 2003

You could be forgiven for being confused and wondering whether the news from the HIV/AIDS front is good news, or bad news which is better than worse news or no news at all. It is actually a mixture of all three, or more that there is good news and bad news.

First the good news, President Bush signed into law a bill (HR 1298) that authorizes $15 billion over five years to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. And while there are grumbles about aspects of the bill, it is exceedingly good news. It is the shot in the arm, that the fight against AIDS needed, having been overshadowed by other events in recent times such as the war on terror and the war in Iraq. It has also served to bring some of the focus back onto Africa and perhaps greater re-engagement of the West in helping to deal with Africa's problems.

It was also reported that the European Union on Tuesday approved a $468 million program to fight poverty-related diseases, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and promote reproductive health in developing countries.

Other good news and this time it comes from within Africa. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data has indicated that HIV rates are falling steadily in cities in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. HIV rates are also leveling off in cities in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, the Republic of the Congo and Senegal. This is a very hopeful sign; many of the countries mentioned are amongst the hardest hit with HIV/AIDS. At the same time the crisis of famine, which was partly precipitated by the AIDS epidemic and threatened more than 15 million people in Southern Africa seems to have abated.

Despite these encouraging signs, the bad news is that the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) will soon run out of money. Reporting to the US House Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee Richard Feachem, executive director of the GFATM, on 7th May 2003 said that the fund only has about $300 million "on hand" and will likely need "five times" that amount "very soon" to support projects. This is not good news at all.

More bad news is contained in a new report from the Global HIV Prevention Working Group "Access to HIV Prevention: Closing the Gap" which says that fewer than one in five people at risk of HIV infection today have access to prevention programmes, and current annual global spending on prevention is $3.8 billion short of what will be needed by 2005. Fortunately there is no worse news.

Clearly work still needs to be done. But on the whole, the good news outweighs the bad. Its been a good week in the fight against AIDS. The hope is that the picture will stay the same or get better.