The UN Special Envoy to Africa said Thursday that contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria are "lamentable." Stephen Lewis appealed for money to keep both the Global Fund and those it serves alive.

"No donor nation in the Western world has made an adequate contribution" to the Global Fund, Lewis said in a conference call with reporters. The fund has a budget shortfall of $1.6 billion to meet an October deadline for a third round of grants and will need a total of $8 billion in the coming years, Lewis said.

Lewis denounced what he said was "a kind of moral paralysis" among nations, and called for a "formula" to guarantee donations to the Global Fund from those who can most afford to fund it. The appeal came a day before finance ministers from some of the world's richest nations are to meet in Paris. A donor conference for the program is set for July 16 in the French capital.

There are fears the Global Fund's needs will be overshadowed at a series of upcoming meetings, including this year's G8 meeting in Evian, France, June 1-3. This makes July's donor conference "absolutely crucial," Lewis said. "If the fund doesn't have money to extend treatment, those people on treatment will die," Lewis said.

A Harvard Medical School professor who works with the Global Fund said there have been many "unintended" benefits of the program, such as reducing the orphan population and improving health care overall. Joia Mukherjee, who works with a Haitian clinic, said her patient caseload has risen from 50 to 450, and she envisions major increases of those receiving treatment as the Global Fund's resources permit. "The influx of money has energized" health care, Mukherjee said.

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