World AIDS Day: AIDS faces funding drop

CONGERS, N.Y., Dec. 1 (UPI) -- On World AIDS Day Tuesday, a day devoted to raising awareness, U.S. researchers point out the world could face a funding shortfall for treatment.

The policy journal Health Affairs devoted much of its November/December edition to the cost and demand challenges of HIV/AIDS. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs, the journal said.

However,over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS -- and the costs of battling the pandemic -- by half.

During the past six years, the world has poured $52 billion into fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic and more than 4 million people with the disease worldwide are being treated. But the rapid growth in AIDS treatment has not kept pace with the rate of new infections.

A total of 11 million people are sick enough that they should be on anti-AIDS treatment, but aren't, and with an estimated 33 million infected, the number needing treatment will only grow in the years ahead, academic journal Health Affairs said.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria needs $3 billion to help run the programs it currently funds. Over the next year, however, the organization will be another $2 billion short of its goal for funding new programs.