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World AIDS Day 2006

world aids day
An HIV/AIDS activist and care giver makes a home based care visit. Photo: Paul Weinberg/OxfamAUS

Keeping the promise: universal access to HIV treatment

At the 2005 UN World Summit, world leaders committed to working on HIV prevention, treatment and care to come as close as possible to reaching the goal of universal access to HIV treatment by 2010.

Three years away from this deadline, and on the commemoration of World AIDS Day on 1 December, what promises have been kept and what more needs to be done – particularly in our own region – to help achieve this target?

The scale of the HIV pandemic

According to UNAIDS, there are 39.5 million people living with HIV worldwide. While there are approximately 1.6 million people receiving treatment, there are more than five million people in need of treatment in developing countries who are not receiving it.

81,000 HIV positive people live in the Pacific; 75 per cent of them live in Papua New Guinea (PNG). More than 2,000 people are newly infected with HIV in PNG each year. So while a proportionally small number of people are living with HIV in the Pacific, it's clear urgent action is needed to prevent further transmission and provide treatment.

Oxfam’s role

Oxfam Australia has been responding to the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific since 2000. Our community-based programs in PNG, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji address HIV/sexual health prevention and education (targeting high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers and youth), support governments’ responses to HIV and provide counselling and care for people living with HIV.

Find out more about our work in the Pacific

On an international level, we advocate for access to affordable, quality medicines for treating people living with HIV and AIDS in developing countries. Competition from generic medicines has helped to lower the price of drugs to treat HIV by 99 per cent. Now more than 50 per cent of people being treated for HIV in the developing world are using generic medicines from India. But the production, import and export of generic medicines is being threatened by international, regional and bilateral trade agreements and the actions of pharmaceutical companies.

For example, multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis is challenging India’s patent law over its cancer drug Glivec. If successful, this challenge could set a dangerous precedent for the future supply of generic medicines from India, including those for HIV treatment. We are working hard to address these barriers that will limit access to affordable medicines.

Find out more about our campaign for access to medicines and the Novartis case

AusAID’s role

The Australian Government has committed AUD $600 million through to 2010 to tackle HIV and AIDS through its overseas aid program, AusAID. It is supporting community-based prevention and care work, and has given limited funding to initiatives to implement treatment programs. But this funding is substantially less than what is needed.

One of the key mechanisms supporting HIV treatment in the region is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund has so far enabled 600,000 people to have access to HIV treatment worldwide, and provides 14 per cent of its funds to East Asia and the Pacific. The Australian Government has so far pledged AUD $75 million to the Global Fund to the end of 2007. This pledge falls way short of what the government should contribute, given the predicted needs of the fund and the size of Australia’s economy.

In its White Paper on overseas aid released earlier this year, AusAID stated that a key priority was to strengthen the region’s capacity to use Global Fund money. While some programs financed by the Global Fund are operating well in the region, others would clearly benefit from such support, particularly in Papua New Guinea.

What is Oxfam calling for?

Internationally:

In Australia:

What you can do

Email the CEO of Novartis, calling on the company to drop its Glivec court case in India

Call on AusAID to increase its pledge to the Global Fund