Aids: the Paris conference calls on United States to maintain their financial aid

AFP

Sunday, 23 July, 2017 14:19

UPDATE
Sunday, 23 July, 2017 14:19

Look at this article

The organizers of the international conference on research on aids, which opened in Paris on Sunday, called on the United States, the first contributor in the fight against the epidemic, to “stay involved” financially, while president Donald Trump has threatened budget cuts.

“The Americans are a essential funding in this area and we need them to remain engaged,” said Linda-Gail Bekker, a researcher at the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre (South Africa) and president of the international aids Society, during a press conference.

In the contrary case, this would result in deaths and contamination further, she warned.

The “remarkable progress” achieved in the fight against aids would not have been possible without the research and “any cuts in funding would undermine this progress,” she stressed.

About 6,000 specialists from aids are in the point in Paris from Sunday to Wednesday on the progress of the research, against the backdrop of concerns in the face of declining financial support for the fight against HIV in recent years.

At the global level, the donations government fell last year to their lowest level since 2010 – seven billion dollars (6.4 billion euros) against $ 7.5 billion in 2015, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The United States is historically the biggest contributor in the fight against aids : they alone account for over two-thirds of government funding international.

Gold, Donald Trump proposes to reduce this expenditure in the budget of 2018, currently in discussion at the Congress.

It is necessary to “reduce funding for several health programs, some of which relate to aids, whereas other donors should increase their contributions,” wrote the u.s. president in may in a draft budget.

“This week, we will show that investments in the fight against the epidemic are not lost : this money is not wasted, it saves lives”, said Linda-Gail Bekker.

“We are in the process of breaking the spine of the epidemic. It is a time that we can’t let go “, for its part, argued Michel Sidibé, Unaids executive director, wanting to believe in the “support transpartisan for the programs” against aids, he felt among the american congressmen.