UK doubles Global Fund contribution

“We must make antiretroviral drugs available, where we can do so responsibly. But let no-one pretend that antiretrovirals are a cure, or that, whatever the price, most people who are infected will receive them. The truth is that most people who are infected are not served by any basic healthcare system, and most suffer with poor nutrition and little basic care. We must do more to make condoms and drugs available -- but be absolutely clear that without a much greater commitment to building basic health-care systems, most of the more than 30 million people already infected will not be helped.”

At the UN General Assembly in New York, Clare Short, the UK's Secretary of State for International Development, declares the UK ready to contribute $200 million to the Global Fund over five years. She suggests the fund should be modelled on the Global Vaccine Initiative, and warns that conferences on the epidemic “waste too much time and energy” in arguing “over texts that provide few, if any, follow-up mechanisms or assurances”.