World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year and is an opportunity for people around the world to unite in the fight against HIV/AIDS. On 1 December we mark the 30th anniversary of the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS.

Over the last three decades, more than 25 million people have died from the virus, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history. Every day over 7,400 people are infected with HIV and 5,500 die from AIDS related illnesses. HIV remains the leading cause of death among reproductive-age women worldwide. An estimated 33.4 million people were living with HIV in 2008, two thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Many advances have been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, especially in terms of how the virus is treated and increasing public awareness of how HIV/AIDS is contracted. However, further action must be taken to ensure that we reach Goal 6 of the MDGs: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. At present it will be difficult to meet the following HIV/AIDS targets by 2015:

• Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

People with HIV/AIDS are likely to suffer the most from the lack of safe water supply and sanitation, especially since diarrhoea and skin diseases are two of the more common infections. The main indicators for progress towards this goal are:

• HIV prevalence among pregnant women aged 15 to 24
• Ratio of condom use to other contraceptive methods
• Number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

For more information on HIV/AIDS success stories check out the UN MDGs Factsheet, examples discussed include antiretroviral treatment in Botswana and reducing rateas of new HIV infections among young people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

HIV can affect anyone and there is no vaccine or cure. The World AIDS Day Australia booklet  contains important information about HIV and AIDS, including how you can protect yourself and where to go for more information and help. Take time to read it and then pass it on to your friends, family and loved ones. You may be saving your life and others.

Written by Melissa Gillies, MPH Online Contributor

Image sourced from the Official World AIDS Day website

On October 4-5, the world community will consider the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. This is a crucial opportunity to sustain and accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The Global Fund has been one of the world’s most successful partnerships to fight three killer diseases and to expand primary health systems in low-income countries. The accomplishments of the Global Fund in 144 countries around the world are widely heralded. By pooling donor resources, supporting national-scale action plans, maintaining rigor in management and oversight, and promoting partnerships of public, private, and civil-society organizations, the Global Fund has saved millions of lives and helped to turn the corner on three pandemic diseases. The decisive control of malaria is within reach; AIDS prevention and treatment are reaching millions in needs; and TB is being treated more effectively than ever before.

The success of the Global Fund has led to an expansion of the country programs that it supports, exactly as is needed to achieve the MDGs. It is therefore imperative that the world support the scale up of primary health care and disease control through an adequate replenishment of Global Fund resources. The Global Fund has shown in great detail the need for at least $17 billion over the next three years, 2011-13, to sustain its recent progress, but has called for $20 billion over three years in order to scale up adequately to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

In addition to this replenishment for the Global Fund’s existing portfolio, there are also powerful practical reasons to commit several billion dollars of the $40 billion pledged at last week’s MDG Summit last week for maternal and child health through an additional financing window at the Global Fund. A new funding window would promote community health workers, antenatal care, safe childbirth, neonatal survival, and the control of neglected tropical diseases, within the context of building effective primary health systems. At the African Union Summit in Kampala, Uganda in July, the Africa leaders precisely called for such a new financing window at the Global Fund to integrate the control of AIDS, TB, and malaria directed towards maternal, newborn, and child health.** The synergies of the Global Fund’s current programs with maternal, newborn, and child health are extremely powerful, for example, in breaking mother-to-child transmission of AIDS through effective prenatal care and safe delivery; ensuring presumptive anti-malaria treatment to pregnant mothers; and controlling several worm infections that interact lethally with AIDS, TB, and malaria.

**The AU leaders “Call on the Global Fund for Fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB to create a new window to fund maternal, Newborn and Child Health. In this context, we appeal to development partners and donors for the replenishment of the Global Fund during its October 2010 meeting and to ensure that the new pledges are earmarked for Maternal Newborn and Child Health. We also appeal for equitable access to the Global Fund resources for all African Union Member States.”

The MDG Advocacy Group is supporting the ample replenishment of the Global Fund and also the call of Africa’s leaders to expand the mandate of the Global Fund to maternal, newborn, and child health. They recommend no better and more timely investment on the planet to support the Millennium Development Goals.

The MDG Advocates (full list and bio’s) are a group of world leaders appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The undersigned MDG Advocates are issuing this statement on the occasion of the meeting in NYC on October 4-5 to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

Akin Adesina
Mukesh Ambani
Stine Bosse
Ray Chambers
Dho Young-Shim
Philippe Douste-Blazy
Jan Eliasson
Julio Frenk
Graca Machel
Wangari Maathai
Jeffrey Sachs

–As Adopted by the Fifteenth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on 27 July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda.