G8 Not Honoring AIDS Commitments, Says Expert

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The AIDS community is increasingly concerned that the donor countries are finding in the current financial crisis an excuse to avoid fulfilling their commitments to AIDS treatment and prevention | IslamOnline.net

One reason for concern was the “pathetic silence” of the G8 countries on AIDS when they met in Italy earlier this month. G8 countries “think HIV can wait,” said Julio Montaner, Co-Chair of the International AIDS Society conference, to open today in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We must send a clear message that HIV is not waiting. Any retrenchment in our efforts to provide universal access to anti-retroviral treatment to AIDS, which was repeatedly promised by G8, will cause us to pay a huge toll in the future,” he added.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the IAS meeting, Montaner said he was “disconcerted, upset, angry” at the lack of the leadership on the part of the G8 when they failed to reaffirm their commitment to AIDS. The latest G8 meeting was held earlier this month in Italy.

In earlier G8 meetings, the leaders have pledged to offer the financial assistance needed for a universal access to AIDS drugs by 2010. Less than a year before the deadline, that goal seems almost certainly unachievable.

In the Italy meeting, the G8 leaders did not expressly say they were going to cut down or reschedule the funding. They just didn’t renew their commitment. By contrast, the financial crisis and how to deal
with it occupied most of the leaders’ time.

“The financial crisis is a very poor excuse for not doing what is ethical, what is right, and what is actually the most sensible thing to do at a time when we need to use our limited resources very effectively,” Montaner told IslamOnline.net.

American Exception

Despite the global nature of the financial crisis, however, not all major industrialized countries are scaling back their AIDS support. The US, though probably hardest hit by the crisis, continues to maintain its PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) program launched by president Bush in 2003.

“I praise the American people for their commitment to PEPFAR,” Montaner said. “I wish the rest of the G8, including my own prime minister Stephen Harper [of Canada], will follow the example of
president Obama.”

In Canada, budget reductions appear be affecting not only global AIDS initiatives, but also IDS-related research. The Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) has recently announced that it was
cutting down or discontinuing its funding for many of its programs, including ones focusing on AIDS.

Elias Said, an immuno-virology post-doctoral researcher at Montreal University told IslamOnline.net that his laboratory was moving in its entirety to Florida, USA, where the lab and its researchers will be
sponsored by Oregon University.

The office of the Canadian prime minister was not available for comment for this story.

The universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 was first promulgated in the G8 meeting in 2005. It has also been established as one of the UN’s Millenium Development Goals — but with a deadline five years further away.

“We are nowhere near meeting neither the 2010 nor the 2015 deadlines,” Montaner said. “So the IAS is going to speak loud and clear that the G8 are failing [to meet] their commitments and we must hold
them accountable.”