AIDS conference marred by funding crisis

AIDS activists described the international HIV/AIDS conference in France, which concluded on Wednesday, as a "fiasco". Despite urgent international appeals, the meeting of supporters of the Global AIDS Fund ended without any major pledges of new money. It is estimated that the fund currently has access to only about US $450 million to cover projects that will need between $800 million and $1 billion. Addressing the closing meeting of the conference, South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was scathing in its criticism of Western governments for failing to provide significant new money to the fund. "Today's donors' conference was a scandal. The wealthiest countries in the world are refusing the amounts of money needed in 2003 and 2004 to begin to save our lives," TAC treatment literacy coordinator, Vuyiseka Dubula, said in a statement. Unless the Global Fund is replenished, countries' proposals to provide life-saving treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, TB or malaria will be refused or postponed.