OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (OneWorld.net) - The grim state of the global economy is threatening to cut aid to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, health experts are warning.

Learning about AIDS and other life issues in Nigeria. © OneWorld TV"We cannot abandon the constituency of 4 million people on treatment or break the hope of 12 million AIDS orphans," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, speaking on a conference call with journalists last week.

The Global Fund currently has a $5 billion funding gap between pledges and plans. The United States, which has yet to approve its 2009 pledge for the organization, needs to "step up and get that going," according to the Fund's head chairman, Rajat Gupta.

The organization is hoping to receive about $2.7 billion from the United States this year, but will be lucky to see even a sizable portion of that goal, said Gupta.

"In this global economic downturn, it's obviously tempting to scale back funding of global health efforts and I think that would be exactly the wrong strategy," said Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corporation, which owns the Fox television stations among many other media outlets in the United States and around the world. Chernin is also chairman of Malaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit organization with the goal of eradicating malaria worldwide.

"It would be a huge mistake on the part of the world to write off [Africa]....There's enormous human capital, people willing to work hard, people willing to make major contributions to society," added Chernin.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was created in 2002 as a partnership between governments, private companies, nonprofit organizations, and affected communities worldwide. It has become the primary source of funding for efforts to combat the three diseases, channeling resources to over 550 smaller programs in 136 countries.

In the seven years since its inception, the Fund has financed $11.4 billion worth of programs.

Neglecting disease prevention -- especially in Africa -- would not only create an even bigger humanitarian disaster, say health and economic experts, but would be devastating for trade and business across the globe.

According to Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the issue of disease in Africa needs to be addressed and mitigated in order for the continent to become a full trading partner, "one that could be picking up the slack by buying our goods and being a full productive part of the world economy."

Though only 9 percent of the world's population lives in sub-Saharan Africa, 68 percent of all people with HIV/AIDS are in the region. Other areas with a significant number of HIV/AIDS cases include Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia.

In Africa, AIDS is responsible for the decline in per capita growth by 0.5 to 1.2 percent every year, according to the Global Fund. The disease is impeding agricultural production, overwhelming health care systems, and hindering educational development.

The high cost of medication and severely limited health infrastructure mean that the majority of people infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa currently have no access to treatment.

Simlarly, 90 percent of malaria deaths occur in Africa, and the disease has been estimated to cost the continent more than $ 12 billion each year in lost economic growth, according to the Roll Back Malaria partnership spearheaded by the United Nations.

While Africa is also home to a large portion of worldwide tuberculosis cases (which often afflicts those already infected with HIV), that disease inflicts more people in Asia than on any other continent.

Like AIDS and malaria, tuberculosis blunts economic development by debilitating many people during their most economically productive years -- between the ages of 15 and 54. "A person with TB loses, on average, 20 to 30 percent of annual household income due to illness," according to the Global Fund.

As the global economic downturn impacts countries on every continent, and with disease control adding a daunting economic burden to many developing countries, international efforts to control the three epidemics have become even more imperative, said the health experts discussing the issue last week.

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, concerns were raised about proper funding for the Global Fund. The recent rise in awareness is uplifting for Chernin of Malaria No More, who notes that efforts to combat malaria have shown impressive success to date.

"Malaria represents one of the great opportunities for a return on investment," he said. Of all global health initiatives, "malaria control probably gets the best bang for the buck."

Unlike AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria is considered an easily preventable disease, with proper community awareness.

"For example, in Rwanda, in a program largely funded by the Global Fund, we saw a 66-percent drop in malaria deaths in one year....In Zanzibar we've now seen malaria prevalence drop to just under 1 percent," said Chernin.

"Malaria costs Africa about $12 billion a year in lost productivity," said Chernin, adding that with "just a fraction of that investment, we can end malaria deaths and remove a major obstacle to economic development,"

According to Chernin, another part of the Global Fund's agenda at Davos is to "galvanize the private sector, so it's not just government supporting malaria and supporting the Global Fund, but also trying to get the private sector to think with the same sort of rigor that they think in their investment decisions and business activities, to apply that same rigor, that same sort of demand for results into their pro bono and pro-social activities."

U.S. President Barack Obama's new administration may prove to turn things around for the Global Fund and other public health initiatives.

"President Obama was very clear in recent days as was the secretary of state that the Millennium Development Goals are America's goals," said Sachs, of Columbia's Earth Institute, referring to the eight targets set by world leaders to reduce poverty, improve health care and education systems worldwide, and protect the environment by 2015. "And there is no instrument more central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals than the scientifically vetted projects of the Global Fund."

Still, the United States has a lot of ground to make up. "0.16 of 1 percent of our income goes for development assistance," said the United Nations' Sidibe, referring to the amount the United States government provides for non-military assistance projects around the world each year. "It's the lowest level of all 22 donor countries."

"These resources are needed because we owe it to those people, those millions of people we can save."

OneWorld.net: Latest News, Groups Working on AIDS, Malaria, and Global Health