HIV spending freeze by US; Africa concerned.
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100208/pl_afp/africaushealthaids
-
-
- pandaman2105
- added this
A US decision to freeze spending on treatment for HIV in several African countries has prompted concern that some of the gains made against the AIDS epidemic since 2003 could be reversed.
President George W. Bush?s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched in 2003, focused largely on treating patients in urgent need of medicine, but the new US administration?s programme has shifted away from emergency treatment.
"George W. Bush is a hero in this country," said Peter Mugyenyi, who heads Uganda?s Joint Clinical Research Centre, a leading AIDS treatment clinic.
Uganda received 929 million dollars (678 million euros) from PEPFAR between 2003-2008 and used much of those funds to provide some 150,000 people with Antiretroviral therapy.
But the US switch in emphasis means that clinics are now being forced to turn new patients away.
"We had drugs under PEPFAR. We didn?t have to turn patients away," he told AFP.
While PEPFAR expanded access to medicine, new HIV infections rose.
So, when PEPFAR was up for renewal the new administration of President Barack Obama demanded greater focus on preventing new infections.
"We have all lost momentum on the prevention front and we?re paying for it now in the form of rising prevalence," PEPFAR?s Kampala-based spokeswoman Lynne McDermott told AFP in an email.
The difficult economic climate meant spending more on prevention necessitated cutbacks on treatment in a country where the infection rate is 6.4 percent in a population of 31 million
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100208/pl_afp/africaushealthaids
President George W. Bush?s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched in 2003, focused largely on treating patients in urgent need of medicine, but the new US administration?s programme has shifted away from emergency treatment.
"George W. Bush is a hero in this country," said Peter Mugyenyi, who heads Uganda?s Joint Clinical Research Centre, a leading AIDS treatment clinic.
Uganda received 929 million dollars (678 million euros) from PEPFAR between 2003-2008 and used much of those funds to provide some 150,000 people with Antiretroviral therapy.
But the US switch in emphasis means that clinics are now being forced to turn new patients away.
"We had drugs under PEPFAR. We didn?t have to turn patients away," he told AFP.
While PEPFAR expanded access to medicine, new HIV infections rose.
So, when PEPFAR was up for renewal the new administration of President Barack Obama demanded greater focus on preventing new infections.
"We have all lost momentum on the prevention front and we?re paying for it now in the form of rising prevalence," PEPFAR?s Kampala-based spokeswoman Lynne McDermott told AFP in an email.
The difficult economic climate meant spending more on prevention necessitated cutbacks on treatment in a country where the infection rate is 6.4 percent in a population of 31 million
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100208/pl_afp/africaushealthaids
-
- groups:
- Community, Current Tonight, Health, US Politics, 3 more
-
- tags:
- Health, Africa, HIV, Health News, 5 more
