Aid Suspension Threatens Disease Fight -- Global Fund

Donor nations' decisions to withhold $180 million in contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria could hinder the worldwide battle against those diseases, the fund's chief warned on Monday. "I think the money will be paid, but there will be a psychological effect," Michel Kazatchkine said in Brussels. "If you are a health minister in a developing country, it will make you hesitate." Acting on reports that some donations had been misspent, Germany, Spain and Denmark temporarily halted payments to the fund earlier this year. The Global Fund has said that $34 million sent to four nations -- Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania and Zambia -- cannot be accounted for; it has suspended further payments to those countries and set up an independent panel to study financial controls.

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