Devex: Funding shortfall threatens ‘test and treat’ for HIV and AIDS
“Global funding shortages and challenges in ensuring adherence to treatment are threatening to delay or even derail new recommendations that all HIV patients begin antiretroviral drug therapy as soon as they are diagnosed. … The ‘test and treat strategy’ could require extra donor funding in some countries, just as global support for HIV/AIDS is falling. UNAIDS, in a recent report laying out the costs needed to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, estimated the cost of hitting treatment targets in low- and middle-income countries at $19.3 billion next year…” (Green, 7/25).

Washington Post: The world spent $1 billion less on AIDS, jeopardizing decades of progress
“The 21st International AIDS Conference convened here last week amid an emerging global consensus that the end to an epidemic that has killed 35 million people might be achievable. … That optimism faded as delegates arrived in Durban to news that donor countries had reduced global HIV funding by more than $1 billion from 2014 to 2015. The reduction could jeopardize the remarkable gains made from investments over nearly two decades, including tens of billions of dollars from the United States. … Washington again provided the majority of last year’s HIV-related donations — nearly two-thirds of the $7.5 billion spent. But U.S. funding dropped [more than] $500 million from 2014, according to a joint report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS. They attributed it primarily to a timing issue, with the United States set to roll out new programs this year…” (Green, 7/25).