Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Associated Press - Thursday October 10, 2002
Ranjan Roy, Associated Press Writer
The estimate was drawn up by U.N. officials for a meeting in Geneva of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, a U.N. statement said.
Total global spending by various U.N. programs on AIDS will be about $3 billion this year. The U.N. AIDS agency has called for a doubling of aid to such programs to meet this year's expenditure.
Experts estimate that rich countries must donate at least $10 billion a year to tackle HIV, which, while becoming better-managed in the developed world, is decimating regions of Africa and gaining momentum in Asia. Thursday's statement reiterated an earlier call by the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to scale up spending on AIDS prevention and treatment to at least that amount immediately.
The U.N. projections also say by 2007, the money required to fight HIV/AIDS could reach $15 billion a year.
The statement said additional money, not factored into the current calculations, would be required to strengthen health care programs in poorer countries where the disease was spreading fastest.
The substantial increases will be "urgently required to keep pace with the epidemic's rapid expansion," the statement said.
An estimated 45 percent of worldwide money going to HIV programs comes from the United States, and the American contribution to the Global Fund represents 25 percent of the total money given so far.
AIDS activists, however, want the United States to contribute more to the U.N.-backed fund than the $500 million it has pledged.
More than 90 percent of the world's 37.1 million HIV infected people live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 26 million ù or 70 percent of the total, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
According to some estimates, it could cost countries like South Africa, where about 4.7 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as much as $700 million annually to provide medicine to just 1 million patients.
The Geneva-based Global Fund is a partnership between several branches of the United Nations and involves the World Bank, private trusts and non-governmental organizations.
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