Combined, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) represents the leading cause of death due to infectious diseases in the world. Since the year 2002, huge progress has been made: mortality rates linked to TB, malaria and AIDS have dropped by 42%, 47%, and 74% respectively, while 87% of people diagnosed with HIV are on antiretroviral treatment, reducing the risk of HIV transmission by 90%. Despite that progress, we’re not on the right track to end those epidemics by 2030, as stipulated by the international community under the Sustainable Development Goal 3.
The impact of COVID-19 on AIDS, TB, and malaria has been dramatic and all the global targets for 2020 were missed.
- HIV testing fell by 22% and prevention services by 11%.
- The number of people being treated for TB fell by over 1 million.
- Estimates suggest a child is dying nearly every minute as a result of malaria
Human rights violations also contribute to these figures: marginalised, discriminated and criminalised populations, like men who have sex with men, sex workers, or injected drug users are most exposed because of their reduced access to care or prevention.
“« We will only win the battle against HIV if we lift obstacles linked to human rights violations faced by key populations, which makes them more vulnerable to infections and prevent their access to health services. »”
Peter SandsExecutive Director of the Global Fund to fight HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria
TB kills more than any other infectious disease. Over a third of cases are not diagnosed. There are tools to cure TB and deaths could be prevented if countries were equipped with the right materials and medical products (radios, detection kits). The very slow decrease of TB incidence rate resulted in the emergence of drug-resistant TB, with higher rates in South East Asia and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.
Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, is closely linked to poverty: mortality rates go off the roof in countries with the highest rates of extreme poverty. The fight against malaria is suffering from chronic under-financing: investments are stagnating while resistance to insecticide is growing in Africa and in the Mekong region.
Focus on the Global Fund to fight HIV/Aids, TB and malaria | Created in 2002, the Global Fund was conceived as an innovative financing tool meant to help the international community centralise public and private resources allocated to the fight against HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. Today, Global Fund investments helped save 44 million lives around the world, guaranteed access to antiretrovirals to 21,9 million people, put 795 000 people with drug-resistant TB on treatments and successfully cured more than 1.16 billion cases of malaria.
Our asks:
In order to eliminate those epidemics by 2030, we are asking for:
- France and the EU to maintain an ambitious level of financing for the Global Fund to fight HIV/Aids, TB and malaria, and that pledges committed during replenishment conferences are effectively disbursed.
- The « Initiative », indirect contribution from France to the Global Fund, aiming to optimise impact of Global Fund grants via technical assistance, to remain a multistakeholder structure, within which real needs of beneficiaries are prioritised over the strategic interests of France.
- Community actors to be integrated and increasingly supported in the fight against epidemics. They play a key role to reach most vulnerable and marginalised populations. Their effective contribution to the fight against epidemics and to safeguarding human rights does no longer need to be demonstrated.
- France to reinforce its political and financial support in favor of the fight against Tuberculosis, which suffers an acute financing gap due to the historic lack of donor mobilization on this disease.
- Multilateral global health funds to integrate their activities within a health systems’ approach so that their specific interventions benefit health systems more widely and improve their sustainability and their financing independence, including during and after transition periods.
