Global Fund gives a boost to the AIDS fight

Mukdawan Sakboon, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

The Ministry of Public Health was expected to announce on Monday the new funding resources it has received from the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fund was the brainchild of the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The increase in funding came at the conclusion of the second meeting of the fund's board on Wednesday. It decided to allocate US$378 million (Bt16.2 billion) over two years for 40 prevention and treatment programs for the three diseases in 31 countries, including Thailand.

The board also agreed to fast track approval of an additional $238 million for 18 programs in 12 countries and three multi- country programs, provided certain conditions are met. This would bring the total funding over two years to $616 million.

The fund's board -- on which Deputy Permanent Health Secretary Dr Suwit Wibulpolprasert is a voting member for Southeast Asia -- allocated $13.4 million to Thailand.

The Thai proposal focuses on strengthening national prevention and care programs for the three diseases, with HIV/AIDS as the priority.

The new resources are meant to supplement not substitute local funds to combat the diseases. Thailand cannot say that now that we have the Global Fund there is no need for the government to allocate its own money. Thailand where concerted efforts in disease prevention and control have resulted in a reduction of new infections. Thailand stands in a good position to benefit from the new funds. However, it must ensure that the money is used appropriately and effectively as required by the fund.

With only one percent of its estimated one million people living with HIV/AIDS getting access to AIDS medication including anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), Thailand has to fill the gap and overcome obstacles to treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS, together with their families.

To ensure wider access to HIV/AIDS drugs and other related essential drugs, public health officials should include these essential medicines in the national essential drugs list, a practice which is endorsed by the WHO. The WHO has also recently supported the inclusion of AIDS medicines in its Essential Medicines List.

In addition, people living with HIV/AIDS must be empowered to fight the disease. Many of them have been well trained about HIV/AIDS and other drugs to treat the common opportunistic infections.

Some HIV-positive people know more about AIDS medications than newly graduated doctors or even veteran doctors who fail to keep up with latest medical advances in HIV/AIDS treatment. However, these same people, who advise their friends and other infected people, have encountered great difficulties in their work, partly because most health care workers do not accept them.

It is crucial to create better understanding about HIV/AIDS care and treatment between people living with the disease and health care workers, to ensure effective and sustainable programs.

The government must keep fighting HIV/AIDS among its top priorities. Currently, it has shown some complacency as condom distribution has been cut. At the national level, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has not paid much attention to the nation's number one health menace, assigning instead a PM's Office Minister to take charge of it. But since the PM's Office Minister overseeing HIV/AIDS prevention and control keeps changing every year, how can we ensure the sustainability of the disease prevention and control program?