AIDS Fund Cuts Will Hit Southern Africa Hard

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria's decision to forgo funding new grants will impact the hardest-hit countries in southern Africa the most, AIDS activists said Monday.

Some 70 percent of the cost for providing antiretroviral drugs in developing countries is underwritten by the Global Fund, which is the largest funder of the fight against AIDS. Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe all rely heavily on money from the fund. Representatives from Doctors Without Borders (DWB) and the South African lobby group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) say HIV infections and AIDS-related fatalities will increase in these countries as a result of the funding cut. Stockpiles of ARVs also are expected to drop.

Faizel Tezera, head of DWB in Zimbabwe, warned of an impending "disaster" there. "More than 86,000 people will be left without treatment and about 5,000 children will be affected," Tezera said.

In Swaziland, where roughly 26 percent of the population is HIV-infected, ARV stocks are already low. Malawi, where 10 percent of people are living with HIV/AIDS, had hoped new Global Fund grants could help reduce the approximately 70,000 new annual infections there. "The quality of treatment will be heavily compromised" as a result of the cuts, said Safari Mbewe, spokesperson for the Malawi Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.

"It is catastrophic for our nations, especially women and children," said TAC spokesperson Nokhwezi Haboyi.

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