Recession lowers international funding to fight AIDS
By Nouschka van der Meijden
May 13, 2010 10:38 p.m.
Developing countries are struggling to combat AIDS as international funding is decreasing, according to a recent report by Doctors Without Borders.
Many countries, including the U.S., have either decreased or stagnated their funding to fight AIDS mainly because of the recession’s effect on donors.
The U.S. AIDS program decided to stagnate funding for the coming two years while the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, a key financier of AIDS programs in the developing world, is considering suspending all new funding proposals in 2010, according to the report.
Reductions in donations have also been noticed by AIDS organizations on campus.
FACE AIDS is a student movement that fights HIV/AIDS in Africa by creating awareness, providing education and selling pins to raise money, said Jyoti Jagpal, a third-year nursing student and president of UCLA’s FACE AIDS chapter.
“When FACE AIDS started in Stanford, before the recession, nobody graduated without buying a pin, and now we barely sell 20 to 30 pins over several months,” Jagpal said. “We are used to having a high standard of living, and we want to maintain that before we start helping others.”
Lavanya Anand, a third-year economics student and co-director of AIDS Awareness, said students in general have less money to spend compared to adults who have a steady income.
The recession might make some students more aware of what they spend their money on, but this does not constitute the majority, Anand said.
While RollAIDS, AIDS Awareness’ annual fundraiser, raised significantly less compared to last year, Anand said this was also due to the timing of the event, which took place Monday when many students were taking midterms.
In the past few decades, international aid has resulted in a large-scale reduction of AIDS infections and deaths worldwide.
In Uganda, which is now one of the first countries where major clinics regularly turn people down for treatment, almost 200,000 patients receive medication, the report said.
This contrasts with the less than 10,000 people who used medication a decade ago.
However, 500,000 people in Uganda need treatment and an additional 110,000 are infected every year.
Uganda is not the only country that is affected. Countries such as Haiti, Cambodia and Guyana will have to reduce or end AIDS programs, according to the report.
The recession is not the only factor causing a decrease in donations.
After years of dealing with AIDS, science has still not found a definite cure, which could make people donate to diseases that are cheaper to treat and more directly curable, according to a New York Times article.
Jagpal also said one of the issues is proximity.
“People like to see the changes they have made. The homeless guy down the street says thank you, but for our aid, we cannot see the effects,” Jagpal said.
The problem at UCLA, Jagpal said, is that there are so many clubs students can turn to.
Jagpal said she understands that people have less money to spend, but she also said she sees the constant need of those infected with HIV/AIDS.
“They are not just losing their standard of living, they are losing their lives,” Jagpal said.
