8. HIV and AIDS
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What we agreed at Gleneagles
- The G8 and other donors secured international commitments to universal access to AIDS treatment which was reflected in the Political Declaration agreed at the UN General Assembly on AIDS in June 2006. This pledged universal access to comprehensive prevention programmes, treatment, care and support by 2010.
How is the UK doing?
The UK has been working with country partners and the wider donor community to scale up the international response to HIV and AIDS. It has committed £1.5 billion over three years to support this effort.
The UK has been working to make sure that the commitment to universal access,
made at Gleneagles, was re-affirmed and endorsed at the
UN
General Assembly High level Meeting on Aids in June 2006. The Political
Declaration at this meeting included commitments to reduce the global HIV and
AIDS resource gap, make sure that costed, inclusive, sustainable, credible and
evidence-based national HIV and AIDS plans are funded and implemented – and
ensure that countries set ambitious national targets, including interim targets
for 2008, to achieve universal access.
We are helping developing countries to strengthen their health systems, as this is the most sustainable way to address the health aspects of HIV and AIDS. For example, in Malawi the UK is funding a £100 million emergency programme over six years, aiming to double the number of nurses and triple the number of doctors and then to retain them through better pay and conditions. As a result, recruitment has dramatically improved and the outflow of health workers is already slowing down.
The UK is also supporting education and social welfare programmes, which are needed to underpin an effective response to AIDS.
How the International Community is doing
Through international efforts the numbers of people living with HIV and AIDS
who are now receiving treatment has increased. Between 2003 and 2006 in
sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers rose tenfold, from 100,000 to over 1 million –
equivalent to 23% of those needing treatment. The number of treatment sites has
also grown exponentially. In Malawi and Zambia, for example, there have been
increases of 20 and 30 fold respectively.
UNAIDS
estimates that in 2005 treatment regimes averted between 250,000 to 300,000
premature deaths in developing countries.
What should happen next?
Ninety countries have set targets for achieving universal access to treatment and care, of which 23 have now costed their strategic plans. The UK, working with G8 partners, is pressing UNAIDS to undertake an early review of the strategic plans and to allow countries to set their own targets. These national targets will be added together to inform global targets for universal access.
The
2007
German G8 Presidency has made strengthening health systems and fighting HIV
and AIDS in Africa a priority for the Summit at Heiligendamm. We will push for
concrete steps to deliver on our commitments to providing universal access to
HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, including: mandating UNAIDS to
undertake an annual stocktake of national AIDS plans; providing sufficient and
multi-year financing for the
Global
Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; agreeing specific measures to address
the feminisation of the AIDS pandemic; supporting developing countries to make
better use of Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
flexibilities to improve access to medicines.
Where it is making a difference:
- In Malawi the UK has committed £45 million to deliver an Essential Health Package which includes the prevention and management of HIV and AIDS. This has helped double the number of people tested for HIV in the last year alone and increased the number of people receiving Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) from 4,000 (2003) to 70,000 in September 2006.
- In Cambodia the UK has supported the social-marketing of condoms since mid-1995 – providing £15.6m from 2003 to 2007. This has been crucial to improving availability and access to condoms in urban and rural areas and helped reverse the trend of the HIV epidemic among adults from 3% in 1997 to 1.6% in 2005.
- The UK is providing £1.5 million between 2003 and 2007 to the
Last updated: 12 March 2008
