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healthcare
healthcare
Seizing the opportunity to
defeat AIDS, TB and malaria
As a global community,
we have an historic
opportunity to defeat HIV,
tuberculosis and malaria
so that our legacy to
successive generations is
a world free of the burden
of these three plagues.
also the private sector, civil society
and, in particular, the people living with
the diseases. Multilateral and bilateral
technical partners support countries to
achieve their goals by being strategic and
pragmatic about the programmes that
will achieve the highest impact based on
the areas where infections are occurring
and based on the people who are most
vulnerable to infection. That requires
strong health systems that engage beyond
the clinic, going deep into the community.
Ambassador Mark Dybul,
Executive Director,
The Global Fund
Only a few years ago, this was
unthinkable. Scientific advances,
epidemiological intelligence and
experience from more than a
decade of implementation mean
that ending these major killers
as public health threats is now
within our reach.
Innovations in science and technology
have given us the tools to more
effectively prevent, diagnose and
treat the diseases. New advances in
epidemiological intelligence provide a
richer, more strategic understanding of
the epidemics, which can direct more
strategic and targeted investments. And
the expansion of national programmes,
over the past decade, provides a
foundation for using science and
epidemiology most effectively. That
includes lessons learned from successful -
and unsuccessful - programmes to enable
the use of best practices.
The Global Fund was created as a 21st
century institution and as a highly
accountable and transparent financing
vehicle for shared responsibility among
all partners so that people on the ground
can be empowered to take responsibility
for solving their problems. This approach
is based on robust engagement of all
sectors - not just governments, but
We also know that a highly effective way
to control and defeat infectious diseases
like AIDS, TB and malaria is by focusing
on the most vulnerable populations.
Reaching the most vulnerable, keeping
them in health programmes once they
start, and making sure that they get
appropriate services, will be absolutely
key to defeating the diseases. The
people most vulnerable to disease often
don’t have access to health programmes,
but we must work to reverse this trend,
to make scientific advances available to
everyone. This will have big implications
in terms of human rights.
Promoting human rights and equity
through the work of the Global Fund is
critical, not just to achieve our health
objectives, but also because it is the
right thing to do. Integrating human
rights into every aspect of the fight
against the diseases greatly increases
the impact of our investments.
This will have big
implications in
terms of human
rights
Investing in health is great value for
money. When you can prevent the
spread of malaria and save the lives
of millions of young mothers and
children with mosquito nets that cost
a few dollars, that is an outstanding
investment. When you can keep a man
or woman with AIDS alive on drugs that
cost US$125 a year or less, compared
with US$10,000 a year just one decade
ago, that is an outstanding investment.
When a person with TB can be treated
for less than US$100 and can go back to
supporting their family and raising their
children, that is a great investment.
Moreover, investments in health don’t
just benefit a single patient, or their
immediate families. It is also the
larger communities and regions and
countries whose economies and social
fabric thrive on a healthy population. A
healthier population is a more productive
population - and with higher individual
household income to purchase goods and
services from the global marketplace.
And investors are unlikely to enter a
marketplace with high absenteeism and
loss of trained personnel to debilitating
and deadly infectious diseases.
Investments in health will yield returns
in a more economically, and therefore
politically, stable world.
Timing is critical.
If we do not start
to act this year,
we may miss the
opportunity.
The fight against AIDS, TB and malaria
is going in the right direction. In recent
years, there have been declines in
infection rates, more people provided
with support and medication, and greater
success rates for treatment. But we
know that much remains to be done,
and already we are starting to see a
resurgence in disease levels in places
where efforts at control are not sustained.
Timing is critical. If we do not start to act
this year, we may miss the opportunity.
As we have learned with other infectious
diseases, when you have a window of
time to control the spread of a disease,
you must take action or else face the
risk that the disease finds new forms
that are far more complex and expensive
to defeat. When that happens, all the
investment made so far is effectively
lost. It is ‘invest now or pay forever.’
We should not minimise the challenge
of what lies ahead. But we know from
experience that by working together,
with shared responsibility, with clear
focus, and with compassion as global
health citizens, these three diseases can
be defeated.
Together, in partnership, we can do
great things.
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