AIDS will continue to ravage the globe regardless of the economic climate, but the current worldwide financial crisis is severely hurting the fight against the disease. According to Reuters, donor contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS have declined as economic conditions worsen, risking a drastic setback in the struggle to contain HIV.
Overall, annual funding for HIV/AIDS programs fell nearly a billion dollars in 2010, from $15.9 billion in the previous year to $15 billion. And that’s still well below the $22 to 24 billion target the United Nations is recommending for an adequate global response.
Michel Sibide, the director for the United Nations campaign against AIDS, told Reuters that failure is not an option and that a global tax could help raise money in the absence of charitable donations.
“If we have a global financial transaction tax, say of 0.5 percent, we will have the $226 billion,” Sibide told listeners at an international AIDS conference in Ethiopia. “Ten percent of that resource is enough for financing the fight against HIV/AIDS, stopping the epidemic, because we can reduce by 96 percent the number of new infections by putting people early on treatment.”
Sibide recommended the taxation be levied on products like cigarettes and alcohol.
