HIV, drug use and the Global Fund: Don’t stop now!

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance warns of an impending HIV/AIDS crisis in Eastern Europe and Asia following its assessment of the impact of the cancelation of Global Fund Round 11 funding and is urging the Global Fund Board to revoke its ‘55% rule’ which limits funding for middle income, priority HIV and drug use countries identified by UNAIDS.

The Global Fund has rapidly become the largest donor of HIV and harm reduction programmes targeting people who inject drugs, according to this new report released by the Alliance, ‘HIV, Drug Use and the Global Fund: Don’t Stop Now!’.

It was produced with colleagues in Ukraine, China and Vietnam, and is timed to influence forthcoming debates on the future of the Global Fund.

The purpose of this report is to demonstrate that a crisis in the Global Fund is a crisis for harm reduction, as the Global Fund has become the largest funder of global HIV and harm reduction programmes targeting people who use drugs.

The report includes a set of recommendations, most prominent of which is a call to the Global Fund to ensure that it continues to support HIV and harm reduction programmes, so that global commitments to reduce HIV transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs by 50% by 2015 can be met.

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