Millions Still Waiting For AIDS Revolution

New York/Johannesburg, November 25, 2013—The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today launched a film series titled See What We See to highlight the people and places left behind despite years of unprecedented global public health efforts to treat and prevent AIDS worlwide.   Just one week before a pivotal pledging meeting for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—hosted in the United States—MSF also expressed concern that if donors fail to meet the Fund’s minimum US$15 billion replenishment target, some HIV/AIDS endemic countries may be left behind, crippling the momentum built over the last 12 years. "AIDS deaths are now rare in rich countries, but every day 4,000 people, the majority in developing countries, still die unnecessarily from the disease," says Dr. Gilles van Cutsem, Medical Director for MSF in South Africa and Lesotho. In most places with high HIV rates, like South Africa, Swaziland and Malawi, access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) has dramatically improved over the last decade. But today, according to UNAIDS one in four people who start HIV treatment in low-and middle-income countries do so dangerously late. In several other countries where MSF works—such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea, Central African Republic, Nigeria, South Sudan and Myanmar—timely treatment remains ...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Source Type: news