Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - August 14, 2009
Achara Ashayagachat
The type-A (H1N1) flu pandemic and the global economic downturn could tempt governments to cut support networks, but this could lead to higher health bills in the long run, health advocates told the 9th International Congress on Aids which ended here yesterday.
Vulnerable groups, particularly migrants, were denied support in the wake of the 1997 economic crisis, which set back efforts to fight the disease, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Organisation and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids).
"It is critical that policy-makers don't make the same decisions that were made during the 1997 financial crisis," said Caitlin Wiesen, the UNDP official working on HIV in Asia and the Pacific.
"Aids spending for a comprehensive response represents a mere 1% of some of the massive stimulus packages seen in the region."
Prasada Rao, director of the UNAids regional support team, said even before the financial crisis, HIV programmes and services for migrants had fallen through the cracks.
Cutting back HIV programmes would hurt disease prevention efforts and set back progress on achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals, Mr Rao said.
The goals include halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015.
Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said support should go to high-risk groups such as inmates, men having sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.
"Aids is not in recession like the economy. Governments should prioritise their responses to make the most of limited financial resources," Mr Kazatchkine said.
Experts from the Commission on Aids in Asia said improving the human rights of vulnerable groups would also help curb the spread of Aids.
Jeffrey O'Malley, UNDP's HIV/Aids director, said strict laws could hamper efforts to keep people healthy.
Laws which regard sex work and male-to-male sex as criminal acts made people reluctant to seek help.
"Aids will stay with us for the next 25 years and we need cost-effective measures and specific targets," he said.
Anand Grover, director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/Aids Unit and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, said some courts in Nepal, India and Pakistan had upheld the rights of sexual minorities, so progress was being made.
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