United Nations:
The global fight against HIV/AIDS is facing funding shortage and sustained effort is needed to raise money to enable the goals set by world leaders to be met, a body dealing with the crisis has said.
The 'Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria' required another USD 7 to 8 billion to reach the funding goals for the current year, its executive director Michel Kazatchkine said on Tuesday ahead of the high level meeting of the UN General Assembly to review the progress made so far.
The gap, he expects would increase to USD 10 to 12 billion in next three years. Besides, he said, there is need for long-term and predictable commitments.
Experts note that extensive treatment is needed for the AIDS victims who get infected with tuberculosis.
A new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that the global fight against HIV/AIDS is yielding ",significant and positive results,", but leading actors in that fight warned that time has not yet come for celebrations.
The report also notes that the rate of progress in expanding access to essential services is failing to keep pace with the expansion of the epidemic.
For example, while an additional one million people had started antiretroviral therapy in 2007, 2.5 million people had been newly infected during that same period.
An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV as of December 2007 and, although the rate of new infections had fallen globally, the number of people newly infected had increased in a number of countries, including China, Indonesia, Russia and Ukraine, in European Union countries and in North America, the report found.
The 'Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria' required another USD 7 to 8 billion to reach the funding goals for the current year, its executive director Michel Kazatchkine said on Tuesday ahead of the high level meeting of the UN General Assembly to review the progress made so far.
The gap, he expects would increase to USD 10 to 12 billion in next three years. Besides, he said, there is need for long-term and predictable commitments.
Experts note that extensive treatment is needed for the AIDS victims who get infected with tuberculosis.
A new report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that the global fight against HIV/AIDS is yielding ",significant and positive results,", but leading actors in that fight warned that time has not yet come for celebrations.
The report also notes that the rate of progress in expanding access to essential services is failing to keep pace with the expansion of the epidemic.
For example, while an additional one million people had started antiretroviral therapy in 2007, 2.5 million people had been newly infected during that same period.
An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV as of December 2007 and, although the rate of new infections had fallen globally, the number of people newly infected had increased in a number of countries, including China, Indonesia, Russia and Ukraine, in European Union countries and in North America, the report found.
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