Gestor bibliográfico Crisis y Salud

In less than a decade, impossibility turned the corner into reality. Infusions of cash and technical support from international donors, as well as growing political will in some developing countries, have provided life-saving antiretroviral drugs to an estimated 5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in resource-poor regions. But now the global HIV/AIDS community must find a way to turn yet another corner by maintaining those 5 million patients on antiretrovirals and offering the drugs to millions more in the midst of a persistent global economic crisis. Even though the downward economic spiral began nearly 2 years ago, AIDS officials say the impact on international donors' ability to meet funding and treatment goals for the next 4 to 5 years still is not clear. In 2008, the last full year for which data on funding commitments and actual disbursements are available, international donors promised US $8.7 billion for HIV/AIDS programs. They delivered $7.7 billion. The gap between promises made and promises kept was substantially smaller in 2008 than in recent years. For example, international donors had committed to $6.6 billion in 2007 but paid $4.9 billion; in 2006, commitments totaled $5.6 billion compared with $3.9 billion paid out.