Combating Aids In The Developing World

The Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. This report lays out the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Force 5 Working Group on HIV/AIDS. The Working Group urges the intensification and revitalization of prevention efforts, a stronger focus on vulnerable populations, and the expansion of antiretroviral therapy to reach 75% of those in need by 2015. Simultaneous expansion of prevention and treatment, accompanied by sustained investment in health systems, will enable countries to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015.

Reports on the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and its lack of an agencywide strategy for marshaling resources to combat the AIDS epidemic in developing countries through the foreign assistance it makes available.

Globally, action to prevent HIV spread is inadequate. Over 16,000 new infections occur every day. Yet we are not helpless in the face of disaster, as shown by the rich prevention experience analyzed in this valuable new compendium. “Best pr- tice” exists—a set of tried and tested ways of slowing the spread of HIV, of persuading and enabling people to protect themselves and others from the virus. Individually, features of best practice can be found almost everywhere. The tragedy, on a world scale, is that prevention is spotty, not comprehensive; the measures are not being applied on anywhere near the scale needed, or with the right focus or synergy. The national response may concentrate solely on sex workers, for example. Elsewhere, efforts may go into school education for the young, but ignore the risks and vulnerability of men who have sex with men. Action may be patchy geographically. AIDS prevention may not benefit from adequate commitment from all parts and sectors of society, compromising the sustainability of the response. In some countries matters are still worse—there is still hardly any action at all against AIDS and scarcely any effort to make HIV visible. It is no wonder that the epidemic is still emerging and in some places is altogether out of control.

The issue of universal and free access to treatment is now a fundamental goal of the international community. Based on original data and field studies from Brazil, Thailand, India and Sub-Saharan Africa under the aegis of ANRS (the French nationalagency for research on Aids and viral hepatitis, this timely and significant book both assesses the progress made in achieving this objective and presents a rigorous diagnosis of the obstacles that remain. Placing particular emphasis on the constraints imposed by TRIPS as well as the poor state of most public health systems in Southern countries, the contributing authors provide a comprehensive analysis of the huge barriers that have yet to be overcome in order to attain free access to care and offer innovative suggestions of how they might be confronted. In doing this, the book renews our understanding of the political economy of HIV/AIDS in these vast regions, where the disease continues to spread with devastating social and economic consequences. This volume will be a valuable addition to the current literature on HIV/AIDS in developing countries and will find widespread appeal amongst students and academics studying economics, sociology and public health. It will also be of interest to international organizations and professional associations involved in the fight against pandemics.

HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where more than 2/3 of the people who are infected with HIV live. The Agency for Internat. Develop. (USAID) allocated a 54% increase in funding, from $114 mill. to $174 mill., for FY'01 to expand its HIV/AIDS efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. This report: identifies the develop. & impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in SSA & the challenges to slowing its spread; assesses the extent to which the USAID's initiatives have contributed to the fight against AIDS in SSA; & identifies the approach that the agency used to allocate increased funding & the factors that may affect the agency's ability to expand its HIV/AIDS program in SSA.

Presents essays offering various viewpoints on the crisis of AIDS in developing countries, providing critical information to form an educated opinion.

This report on the global AIDS epidemic outlines the strategic role that governments must play in slowing the spread of HIV and mitigating the impact of AIDS in morbidity and mortality. The report draws on the accumulated knowledge of the last 15 years to highlight effective management policies.