PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAIDS DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAIDS DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT

Despite significant increases in the level of commitments from countries across the board, the fight against AIDS still fell two to three billion dollars short of what was needed, Jim Sherry, the Director of Programme Development for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) told correspondents this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing.

Mr. Sherry said that although many countries had even trebled their contributions to AIDS-related programmes in the last six months, the resources to fight HIV/AIDS were a long way from what was needed. It was his expectation, however, that the large amounts of money needed to fight the AIDS virus would come through finance mechanisms and through the debt relief process.

Asked if the announcement made by the United States that it would treble its contribution was significant, he said that the United States' increased contribution was important for two reasons. As the largest international donor to the effort -- and the first to treble its contribution -- inputs from the United States reflected 40 to 50 per cent of all international inputs to the AIDS crisis. The United States contribution was significant not only in terms of the level of resources, but also in that it set a mark for other countries to increase their contributions. Some other countries had also increased commitments in the last six months, including the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Working together, UNAIDS, the World Bank and USAID had been able to arrive at their estimates in two different ways. One was to look at the seven or eight best interventions and what it would take to accelerate them in sub-Saharan Africa. The other method was to "cost-out" those countries that had had significant success, such as Thailand, Senegal and Uganda.

Asked what country was most at peril in Africa, he said that without singling out one particular country, countries in southern Africa had been hit the hardest, with one in four adults infected with the AIDS virus. In some cities, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among young women was 40 per cent. In some cases, 20 per cent of fifteen year-old girls carried the AIDS virus. "The epidemic has come charging on in the last few years, but the response just hasn't been what it should have been”, he said.

Asked to describe the situation in Uganda, he said that Uganda could be considered a "success story" because it had faced the problem head-on. Unlike some African countries that had avoided publicizing their battle with the AIDS virus, Uganda's Government had put the problem in the press immediately. As a result of aggressive campaigns against the virus, there had been a 50 per cent reduction in the HIV prevalence in young people in the last five years.

Other countries, such as the United Republic of Tanzania, had also experienced a positive impact from HIV/AIDS programmes, he said. UNAIDS was hopeful those successes could spread to other parts of Africa. "We're feeling quite bullish on this", he added.

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