The UN reported recently this….The world is falling behind in its pledge to reduce HIV/AIDS infections and improve treatment, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a U.N.

The report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that “critical challenges remain” if the world is to make good on promises made at a U.N.-sponsored meeting on HIV/AIDS in June 2011.

Funding for anti-HIV/AIDS projects has been inadequate, the report said, and a U.N. goal to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 may not be met.

The report to the U.N. General Assembly said that some $15 billion was available to respond to the HIV pandemic in 2010, but it estimated that $22 billion to $24 billion will be needed by 2015 to achieve the U.N.’s HIV/AIDS targets.

“It will be impossible to achieve global targets without sufficient financial resources,” Ban said, calling for public, private and charitable funds. He urged the international community “to now stand up to meet the commitments it has made.” The report said that more than 7 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral treatment in 2011, and the goal is to more than double that total to 15 million people in 2015.

There were an estimated 34 million people living with HIV as of December 2010, about half of them women, the report said. If we’re to get a handle on any disease, we can’t stop fighting.  It’s like walking away from a heavyweight fight when you have the opponent on the ropes.  You’re giving them/it a chance to comeback and all the gains will be lost.  If the world doesn’t assist due to fund issues, we’ll have to deal with all diseases later when its worse. Now you know.

Tom Thayer

info http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/30/world-failing-to-meet-hivaids-targets/#ixzz1uUUNtpPS