Geoff Dyer
Financial Times (U.K.)
July 17, 2004

Speaking at the end of a week-long Aids conference in Bangkok, Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAids, described Africa’s debts as “the $15 billion annually that disappears down the money pit.” The money should be channelled instead into spending on health and education, “the building blocks of the Aids response”, he said.

At the closing ceremony, Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, also urged developed nations and the private sector to give more money to the UN-sponsored Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Interrupting his retirement from public life to attend the conference, Mr Mandela, who turns 86 tomorrow, said: “We challenge everyone to help fund the fund now.”

The comments were made at the end of a week in which nearly 20,000 delegates have been disappointed by the lack of progress in addressing the epidemic on all fronts. No big scientific advances on vaccines or new drugs have been unveiled and health officials disclosed that only about 7 per cent of the 6 million people in developing countries who should be receiving Aids drugs are getting them. Meanwhile, 5 million people were infected with the virus last year.

Although the World Health Organisation admitted that its plan to have 3 million people on treatment by the end of 2005 was running behind schedule, most frustration has been directed at the US administration and its $15 billion (€11 billion, £8 billion) plan for Aids. Mr Piot said that more funding was needed but he also promised that the money that had been made available for Aids projects would start to have a significant impact over the next two years.

“I truly believe that for the first time there is a real chance that we will get ahead of the epidemic,” he said. However, delegates at the conference expressed doubts about the ability of some developing nations to absorb all the cash becoming available for Aids projects because of the lack of resources.

Botswana, for instance, has set up a pioneering Aids treatment programme backed by money from Merck and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, officials admitted this week that three years into the project only half of the $100 million had been allocated and only 70 per cent of that money had been spent.

With research into a vaccine for Aids making slow progress, the conference heard calls for more funding of research into microbicides – vaginal gels and creams that can be used to prevent HIV infection.

Zeda Rosenberg, who runs the non-profit group International Partnership for Microbicides, said a product could be ready within five to seven years. She acknowledged that many scientific obstacles remained.

One of the reasons for the growing support for microbicides is the fact that they would give women greater independence because the treatments could be applied hours or even days before sex.