New international funding urged for AIDS crisis

A UK parliamentary group has called for the urgent mobilisation of new international funding to tackle HIV/AIDS in Africa, a British newspaper, the Financial Times, reported.

The Africa All Party Parliamentary Group argued that billions of dollars could be made available from the European Union and from a British-inspired plan for raising international bonds to boost development aid.

The group described the response to Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis as having been "hideously slow" and warned that the implications extended into the security arena, where the epidemic could contribute to the collapse of African states.

It is estimated that Africa needs at least US $7 billion a year for prevention and treatment alone, not counting support for orphaned children, emergency food programmes and other measures to mitigate the impact of the disease.