HIV: private donations and public donations

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has set itself a collection target of 18 billion dollars (16.80 billion euros) for 2024-2026, announced (24 May) its first pledge from the private sector on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, May 24, reports the Archyde.com news agency. The promise is for ten million dollars; it was made by Comic Relief US and unlocks a $20 million commitment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For his part, US President Joe Biden, whose country will host the next replenishment conference, has already announced a commitment of six billion dollars. The disruptions to health care caused by Covid-19 around the world have penalized the detection and treatment of these three deadly diseases, recalled the executive director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands. “The reality is that the need to fight these diseases is not going away. It got worse,” Peter Sands told Archyde.com. The context has also changed dramatically since 2019, when the fund reached a target of $14 billion. According to Peter Sands, the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and growing economic problems are having an impact on donations. Private sector donations are also affected by recent market losses. “It’s a difficult time to raise large sums of money,” notes, worried, Peter Sands. In addition, the United States has indicated that it will make $80 million available to Cameroon for programs to fight AIDS, the Cameroonian Ministry in charge of Public Health announced on Monday May 23. in an information note following a meeting between the Cameroonian Minister of Health, Malachie Manaouda, and the new American Ambassador, Christopher John Lamora. This amount will be allocated, in part, to the activities of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). Another portion of this fund is expected to support the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar). According to data from the Cameroonian Ministry of Public Health, between 2004 and 2020, the HIV prevalence rate fell from 5.6% to 2.7% among the population aged between 15 and 49 in the country. Finally, the United States indicated that it was providing $404 million in aid to Mozambique to support the fight once morest AIDS. These funds, which can be used under the national operational plan (COP) in 2023, are intended to help Mozambique achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. “The COP22 plan represents our shared commitment to bring the epidemic under control, putting 1.9 million Mozambicans on life-saving treatment over the next 18 months,” said US Ambassador Peter H. Vrooman. In 2020, with more than two million people infected, Mozambique was the third country with the most HIV cases in the world.