Australia pledges $48 million to support Pacific HIV outbreak response

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Pacific nations are seeing a devastating rise in rates of HIV and aids. The Australian government has set up a 48 million-dollar program to support Pacific nations as they grapple with the epidemic.  Helen Evans from the Pacific Friends of Global Health has welcomed the funding.

Transcript

00:00It's actually really devastating. There's an estimate that there may be as many as 3,000

00:08new cases by the end of this year, and we're still grappling along, working closely with

00:15the Fiji government and community groups there to try and get a handle on it. It's largely

00:20driven by injecting drug use and significantly amongst young populations. Most concerningly,

00:27apparently some of the infections are amongst children as young as 10 years old. So it is a huge concern.

00:37And which programs have been cut because of the withdrawal of US funding, and is that adding to the problem?

00:45I'm not sure that it's adding to the problem in Fiji, but it's certainly adding to the problem globally

00:54when they've cut such a massive amount of funding. And they've cut funding to organisations

01:00like UNAIDS, which provides a lot of support, and WHO, which provides a lot of support as well.

01:06A number of large nations are stepping back from their development assistance support. It's terrific

01:12to see that Australia's maintained its commitment. It's not just Fiji, though. I mean, Papua New Guinea

01:20also declared HIV as a national emergency in the middle of this year, where they've had a significant

01:26increase in their infections as well. And it's really tragic where we were really on track globally to

01:36eliminate HIV by 2030. And we're still on track in Australia, which is a great achievement.

01:42And it was achievable, but the significant cut in funding, particularly the US funding,

01:48but not only the US funding, a number of big US... the UK, for instance, and EU donors have also cut their

01:58support, having to make a choice or making a choice, whether they have to, between defence and development.

02:08Whereas I think the two should go hand in hand. So it's a very different scene, yes.

02:13As you said, there has been a huge increase in new cases and infections in Fiji and other places in the Pacific.

02:21How many people, though, go on to develop AIDS? How many people are living with HIV? In other words,

02:28what's happening with treatments and antivirals?

02:32Well, if you're on treatment... I mean, that was the big breakthrough in...

02:39When was it? 1996, with the antiretroviral treatment that changed HIV-AIDS from a death sentence

02:46to a manageable communicable disease, but you need to be on the treatment to manage the HIV.

02:53And when people can't access treatment, and there are a lot of people now who are receiving

02:59treatment through funded programs who aren't accessing it, and UN AIDS are estimating that

03:05as many as three to four million new infections will result by 2029 if funding isn't restored

03:16to provide treatment to people. It's not... It's both preventing HIV, it's also preventing

03:25vertical transmission of HIV. For instance, in Africa, HIV is more prevalent amongst women.

03:32And if they're HIV positive and they're on treatment, you can actually prevent the transmission of

03:40HIV through to their child. But if they're not on treatment, then you're also going to get

03:45not only the mother, but the child infected. So, yeah, we're looking for a big increase.

03:50It's a desperate situation. Helen Evans, thank you so much.

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