G8 Development Ministers Must Heed Early Warning Signs of Cutbacks to AIDS Funding

DELHI, India and KAMPALA, Uganda, April 26, 2010 - Rationing Funds, Risking Lives: World Backtracks on HIV Treatment, the
new report from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC),
documents early warning signs resulting from the global pullback on AIDS
commitment and funding: caps on the number of people enrolled in treatment
programmes, more frequent drug stock outs, and national AIDS budgets falling
short.

"AIDS is not over. ITPC's report clearly shows that the response is being
starved not over-funded. Governments, North and South, cannot afford to put
the clock back and return us to the days when HIV was a death sentence," said
Aditi Sharma coordinator of ITPC's report.

The effect of government budget cuts and flat lined funding from major
donors like PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria are already being felt in the developing world. The Fund needs US$20
billion over the next three years to help meet the health-related Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), but G8 and other donors are warning that raising
even US$13 billion (the lowest target which will mean a dramatic slow-down in
pace of delivery) is a "huge stretch."

"In my home country, Uganda, for the first time since 2004, some
HIV-positive men and women in need of life-saving antiretroviral treatment
are being turned away because of funding cuts. Our greatest fear is that we
may have to ration HIV medications for those already receiving treatment. How
do you tell an HIV-positive mother that she can no longer have the drugs she
needs to stay alive? ITPC's report makes it painfully clear that Uganda is
not alone in facing an escalating treatment crisis," said Peter Mugyenyi of
the Joint Clinical Research Centre, Uganda and author of the foreword.

"Access to AIDS treatment for four million people has been the most
ambitious public health achievement in history," said ITPC's Gregg Gonsalves.
"Worldwide thousands of doctors, nurses, legislators, and activists helped
make treatment scale-up possible. Now a few power brokers and politicians who
claim AIDS receives too much money seem intent on ending this remarkable
effort, in effect telling millions of people: drop dead. Without treatment,
this is certainly their fate."

Researchers found that the financial sustainability of AIDS treatment
programmes is in question, effectively ending any hope of meeting the goal of
universal access to HIV treatment or the MDGs.

    - India: access to second-line antiretrovirals (ARVs) is
      severely limited because of strict eligibility criteria for the
      government programme and high cost in the private sector.
    - Kenya: donor cutbacks and a lack of adequate domestic funds will
      cause the financing gap for treatment to further widen this year.
    - Latvia: HIV treatment costs are shockingly high compared to other
      middle-income countries, and the government is imposing restrictions on
      the number of patients provided with free ARVs.
    - Malawi: the health care system suffers a severe shortage of
      qualified doctors and nurses and most patients entering hospitals are
      unaware of their HIV status.
    - Swaziland: tuberculosis is the leading killer of people living
      with HIV, yet effective integration of TB and HIV treatment is lacking.
    - Venezuela: the government is working from an outdated national
      AIDS plan and lacks reliable data on the number of people living with
      HIV or those in need of treatment.

The report, the 8th in the Missing the Target series, is published by
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC). Full report available
at www.itpcglobal.org

Kay Marshall, New York, +1-347-249-6375, kaymarshall at mac.com; or Aditi Sharma, Delhi, +91-991-0046-560, aditi.campaigns at gmail.com, both for ITPC