April 29, 2011- To mark International Workers' Day 2011, the International AIDS Society (IAS) is calling on the global AIDS community to recognize the potential of the organization’s 16, 000 plus members, over a third of whom work as health care and social services providers on the frontlines of the HIV epidemic, to be included and consulted in the current efforts to improve aid effectiveness and efficiency in the HIV sector.  

 

During the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) held in Vienna in July 2010, we saw the emergence of two key messages.  As high level speakers emphasized that current economic challenges and a flat-lining of resources are threatening progress made in the global response to HIV, the first message was plain and simple: more money is needed if we are to sustain and scale up the international response to the HIV epidemic. More...

On 10 May, 2010, The New York Times published an article by Donald McNeil Jr. with the startling but accurate title, “At Front Lines AIDS War is Falling Apart.” This report was reproduced in Uganda’s leading newspaper – The New Vision – today, 12 May, 2010. The article highlights what we, the health workers at the frontline, had feared all along what might happen if there was any loss of momentum in funding HIV care, particularly in countries with limited resources such as Uganda. McNeil uses Uganda as a case study where patients in urgent need of ARVs to save their lives are being turned away without treatment. I am convinced that similar scenarios are already happening in other countries, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa. If this is not happening yet, then it is just a matter of time. The articles raise one simple question: Why are we now losing a battle that we had fought so hard… and won? And where are the friends, including the G8 nations, that pledged to support universal access to HIV care in 2005? More...