See what's new in our work to fight for the Global Fund and global health.
Hello from Friends!Here is a quick look at what's new in our work to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria in the age of COVID-19.
On World AIDS Day, Investment Urgently Needed to Counter COVID-19 Setbacks
After years of progress in the fight against HIV, this World AIDS Day sees COVID-19 threats that risk knocking that progress off track. That's why Congress must provide $20 billion for the global response to COVID-19 and $4 billion over two years for the Global Fund's COVID-19 response mechanism.
PEPFAR:"While PEPFAR and partner programs have shown remarkable resilience in the context of COVID-19, its impact on HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria prevention programs has been devastating."
"The dual HIV and COVID-19 pandemics continue to reveal and exacerbate existing inequities and vulnerabilities in societies around the globe. The HIV gains that we were making together as a global community are especially at risk and we will need increased investment in HIV prevention programs to restore these gains, notably for young women and key populations."
"For those of us focused on the fight against HIV, adding COVID-19 to the list of unfinished fights would be a terrible outcome, since it would compete for already inadequate health and development budgets. Instead, we should seize this opportunity to inject new impetus into the fight against HIV. If the right answer for COVID-19 is a global approach that leaves no one behind, that’s also the right answer for HIV. And TB. And malaria." -Peter Sands [The Telegraph]
"In the words of Ecclesiastes, there is 'a time to keep silent, and a time to speak.' Now is the time to advocate, or speak up, on behalf of those in developing nations who are suffering with or are vulnerable to not only COVID-19 but also to long-standing infectious diseases like HIV." -Rev. Samuel Rodriguez [Fox News]
"HIV has infected more than 77 million people worldwide and, despite significant progress in treatments, has killed over 35 million people -- including 690,000 last year alone. Two-thirds of all new infections and deaths occur in Africa. Now, UNAIDS estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic may set back progress on HIV by a decade." -Mark Dybul and Sharon Lewis [CNN]
"[The new administration must] continue our moral and financial commitment to the success of programs such as PEPFAR, Gavi, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We are already losing years of previous progress against other infectious diseases. That can’t be allowed to become decades." - Michael Gerson [Washington Post]
World Malaria Report: Malaria Deaths Will Exceed COVID-19 Deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa
1.5 billion malaria cases and 7.6 million deaths from malaria have been averted since 2000.
Malaria still kills 400,000 people every year, most of whom are children, and malaria deaths from service disruptions will likely exceed deaths from COVID-19 this year in sub-Saharan Africa.
