Have richer countries forgotten the 7 million sick people who are denied access to treatments?

Seven million people suffering from AIDS still have no access to anti-retroviral medicines that could save their lives. In order to give them access to treatments, richer countries should finance the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as needed.

The replenishment conference for the Global Fund will be held next autumn, during which the giving States will announce their contribution for the coming three years. Estimations have shown that €15 bn will be necessary to cover 85% of the global needs by late 2016 and for a real impact on the three most lethal pandemics of our History.

USA has already annouced a contribution of $1 bn, but it will be available only if the Global Fund can raise $10 bn more [1]. In order to do so, the second State giving to the Fund, France, must substantially increase its contribution, set at €360 million per year.,

G8 counts its money, Southern countries counts their dead

At the Gleneagles summit in 2005, the G8 leaders said they were committed to reach universal access to prevention, treatments and therapies before 2010. That promise was not kept. At the Lough Erne summit, opening today in Northern Ireland, AIDS does not even show up on the programme sheet. For the first time, the G8 leaders have not even planned to reassert their commitment to the fight against pandemics. Have they decided to give up, weary as they must be of not keeping their promises?

Will François Hollande betray the AIDS-suffering people?

Last July, François Hollande promised to double the number of sick people on treatment, which will only be possible if France still contributes financially to the needs of the Global Fund. He also promised to resort to innovative, extra financings, such as the tax on financial transactions.

On April 30th, Laurent Fabius swore to NGOs that diminishing the French contribution to the Fund was not an option. However, a decrease in the budget of the public aid for development has been announced and, in 2013, 0% of the results of the tax on financial transactions has been allocated to the fight against the three pandemics. There is no way to be sure that parts of this tax will be used to fight AIDS in the coming years.

Today, it is up to François Hollande to decide. Will he trample his promises? Will he betray the sick?

The crisis makes for a good excuse

Increasing the French contribution to the Global Fund does not threaten the GDP, whereas financial speculation and tax giveaways do. Must the sick pay for the banks and suffer from the lack of ambition of the G8 leaders in their struggle against tax avoidance?