In a letter to the Guardian in response to the news that the U.K. Department for International Development (DfID) plans to cut bilateral aid for HIV/AIDS by nearly one-third, Nathan Ford, medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, writes that the agency’s decision “comes at a critical moment,” after “[v]arious studies published in the past year have shown widespread access to treatment and prevention can dramatically cut HIV/AIDS transmission, and allow for consideration of an end to the epidemic.”

“Without sustained funding, we will not only lose the opportunity to reverse the epidemic, we also risk reverting to a time where patients arrive in wheelbarrows to overwhelmed clinics. By saving money now, the U.K. and the rest of the international community risks having to pay a lot more later, with many avoidable lives lost in the meantime,” Ford concludes (10/6).