Lack of Financial and Political Support Jeopardizes Global HIV Prevention Efforts -- July 12, 2000

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA -- Declines in HIV rates in a number of non-industrialized countries show that with sufficient funding and political commitment, it is possible to contain the spread of the deadly virus, the director of an international HIV/AIDS program said in a speech at the XIIIth International AIDS Conference July 12.

"Prevention can work," said Dr. Peter Lamptey, senior vice president of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Department of Family Health International and director of the IMPACT Project. "And there is evidence, from a number of national surveillance programs and research studies, that it does work."

He cited the experiences of Thailand and Uganda, which have recorded reductions in the percentage of people testing positive for HIV in key "sentinel" groups, such as pregnant women seeking care at antenatal clinics. Recent HIV prevalence data suggest that the epidemic is also beginning to decline in Cambodia. And Senegal has maintained low, stable rates of HIV, with a prevalence of 0.4 percent among pregnant women in the capital city of Dakar, compared to rates of 13 to 43 percent in many African cities.

But HIV continues to spread inexorably in most countries of the world–particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, home to over 24 million of the more than 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

"We cannot claim success when 16,000 people become infected every day," Dr. Lamptey

said. "We cannot claim success until we make prevention work globally, controlling the pandemic and drastically reducing the rate of new infections all over the world."

What the four successful national HIV prevention programs have in common, Dr. Lamptey noted, is strong political and financial commitment from their leaders, adequate resources, a relatively early response, interventions that reach most of the people at risk, sound technical strategies, and a good source of evaluation data.

Political and financial commitment top the list of Dr. Lamptey's recommendations for improving and expanding prevention and care programs to contain the global pandemic. He noted that these recommendations are virtually identical to those he made during a speech at the ninth international AIDS conference in 1993. Since then, international donors' contributions to global prevention efforts per person infected with HIV have actually declined.

Dr. Lamptey challenged world leaders to reconsider their priorities, noting that Western governments spent tens of billions of dollars on wars in Iraq and Kosovo, yet cannot find the resources to help stop an aggressive virus that has already killed more people than two world wars.

"We know that HIV prevention can work," he concluded. "How many more people must die before we find the will and the resources needed to make prevention work for everyone?"