AIDS global funding suffers shortfall of 50% this year

Global efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic have received a blow from the Government's decision to renege on its overseas development aid funding commitments, it was claimed yesterday.

Speaking on World AIDS Day, Ms Breda Gahan, HIV/AIDS programme adviser with Concern Worldwide, said the UN-affiliated global fund for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, to which the Government contributed, suffered a funding shortfall of 50 per cent this year.

"We are seriously worried that the Government looks like reneging on the solemn promise it made to the world's poor on reducing world poverty by 2007. Sustained and unconditional funding is necessary to control the spread of AIDS. We act now or we pay later."

Mr Hans Zomer, director of the aid agency umbrella group Dóchas, added: "At a time when the world should be gearing up to fight a disease that kills 4,000 women each day, Ireland is saying the fight can wait."

An estimated 39.4 million worldwide are living with HIV, an increasing proportion are women.

Progressive Democrats TD Ms Fiona O'Malley described as "frightening" figures showing the rate of new infections diagnosed annually in the Republic had risen by 243 per cent since 1998.

"Our traditional 'head in the sand' approach to sex education in this country continues to haunt us. The 'sex is wrong' approach, which has dominated our thinking for so many years, is out of touch with the needs and behaviour of young people and has consequently met with little success."