What to tell the patients?
- By Aymeric Péguillan
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China.org.cn, December 2, 2011
![In a Ministry of Health clinic in Swaziland where MSF staff also work, phlebotomist Ntombikayise Dlamini is performing the necessary tests for patients.[© MSF]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20111202/001372acd0b51042777a01.jpg "In a Ministry of Health clinic in Swaziland where MSF staff also work, phlebotomist Ntombikayise Dlamini is performing the necessary tests for patients.[© MSF]") |
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In a Ministry of Health clinic in Swaziland where MSF staff also work, phlebotomist Ntombikayise Dlamini is performing the necessary tests for patients.[© MSF] |
Soon it will be necessary to explain to patients infected with HIV, simple and multi-drug resistant strains of tuberculosis, and to the mothers who each year loose their children to malaria, why big banks have access to emergency rescue measures and not them.
The cancelation last week of Round 11 of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is a large hit to those patients, activists and caregivers, who for 10 years have accomplished significant progress in the uphill battle against these deadly diseases. Never has the hope of dealing a fatal blow to the epidemics of our time been so great than in recent months. Encouraging results were published from a number of studies showing the considerable scientific impact that antiretrovirals (ARV) have on preventing the transmission of the HIV virus from an HIV-positive patient to an uninfected person, and more simply on the overall health of those infected.
These latest advances have brought medical organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), to seriously focus on developing preventative treatment strategies aiming to reduce transmission. The new measures, adapted for medical contexts presenting a high prevalence of HIV, are additionally designed to engage discussion with the specific countries' health ministries to guide their implementation quickly.
It is sufficient to say that today, most of the field workers in daily contact with patients think more about how they will save thousands of lives threatened by lack of funds, rather than how they will prevent new infections. At its inception, the Global Fund raised hopes that the efforts of field workers would be supported by a strong financial mechanism, that would undoubtedly lead to a victory against these great epidemics. The major donor countries pledged publicly behind the United States to support this unique initiative by continuing donations and consequently silencing the skeptics of international cooperation on health to benefit the most vulnerable.
But, as it seems, it was not foreseen that the major governing powers would turn their backs in the midst of a global economic slowdown. Today, these leaders think more about satisfying domestic needs and interests, than honoring their commitments, which millions of lives depend on.
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