Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Sunday, December 7, 2003
WHO Director General Jong-Wook Lee called on Britain, Japan and Scandinavian nations in particular to donate more money to the organization's global push against the disease, estimated to be killing 8,000 people a day.
"The trend is more money is becoming available, we have to put in more requests and suggestions and pressure to the countries," said Lee, in Brazil for a global health conference.
He said "very urgent action and not the business-as-usual approach" was needed.
Funding to battle HIV/AIDS has increased from $3.2 billion in 2002 to $4.7 billion but is still less than half the yearly total the United Nations has called for to fight the epidemic and provide drugs to treat people infected by HIV.
The WHO earlier this month unveiled plans to rush life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) AIDS drugs to 3 million of the world's poor by 2005 and train 10,000 health workers.
Lee said HIV had now infected nearly 40 percent of people in Botswana and half the population would die of AIDS unless urgent action was taken. Life expectancy in Mozambique is expected to fall to 27 years due to the disease.
In 2002 around $1 billion was spent on fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa, which is thought to have nearly 30 million of the 40 million people infected by the disease.
The United States has promised $15 billion over five years to combat AIDS, especially in Africa. It has come under fire for only earmarking $2 billion for the program next year.
Earlier this year, Britain said it would give a global AIDS fund $280 million through to 2008 after initially pledging $200 million for five years in 2001.
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