African AIDS Clinics Face Funding Shortages

The global economic crisis is not only hurting people’s pensions and lifestyles, it is leading to a severe reduction in funding for HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa. South Africa alone has approximately 5.7 million people infected with HIV. Doctors Without Borders are being forced to turn away patients because they do not have the funding to give out life-sustaining medicines.

The fight against AIDS has been making a positive impact, but this funding setback may destroy all the progress that has been made. Doctors Without Borders reported that eight countries in Africa are facing critical funding shortages. Clinics in Mozambique and Uganda are being shorted funding by the government because of the financial crisis. The governments claim they cannot afford to follow standard treatment protocols.

The medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres(also called Doctors Without Borders) in South Africa Dr. Eric Goemaere, says global economy is not a valid excuse for the reduction in funding. Another founder of an AIDS clinic funded by U.S. donors reports that she has been asked to quit enrolling patients. Her clinic currently cares for more than 2,000 AIDS patients in a poverty stricken area of South Eastern Africa. Many clinics across African countries are reporting they do not have medications and are being forced to leave patients to die.

The Doctors Without Border program has a meeting in October to determine the budget for the next three years.  The United States has already pledged nearly 7 billion dollars in AIDS funding for programs all around the world.