Science and Health
Group: HIV/AIDS among top crises of 2009
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-21 14:42
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NEW YORK: Dwindling funding for HIV/AIDS threatens to leave an estimated 10 million infected people without treatment in the developing world, making it one of 2009's Top 10 humanitarian crises, according to Doctors Without Borders.
"When there are concerning signs of a retreat for access to treatment, it's important to state that HIV/AIDS is an emergency," Delaunay said.
The international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF for its French name "Medecins Sans Frontieres," began issuing its annual list in 1998 after a devastating famine in southern Sudan went largely unnoticed by the US media.
The list, which does not rank the crises by order of importance, seeks to foster greater awareness of crises that may not receive adequate attention in the press.
Since pledging to support universal AIDS treatment coverage by 2010 at the G8 Summit in Scotland in 2005, many countries, including the United States, have announced plan to reduce or limit funding, she said.
"In some countries doctors are turning patients away, advised to wait until other patients die. What's going to happen is that patients are going to show up at the door of our clinics and there is a high possibility of us getting overwhelmed," Delaunay warned.
Another crisis that made this year's list was in Sri Lanka, where battles between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels left tens of thousands civilians trapped with only limited medical care this spring after aid groups were banned from the conflict zone.
In Somalia, where 42 relief workers have been killed since 2008, including three MSF, staff, the ongoing civil war forced 200,000 people to flee the capital Mogadishu in the first months of 2009.
In Yemen, shelling during fierce fighting between government forces and rebels forced MSF to close the only hospital serving an entire district.
And in the Democratic Republic of Congo, civilians gathered with their children at an MSF vaccination sites in the Kivu province were attacked by government forces - a move the group says severely undermined the trust necessary carry out independent medical humanitarian work.
In Pakistan's Swat valley, MSF was forced to suspend operations due to violence which saw its hospitals struck by mortar fire and two of the group's workers killed.
MSF is a humanitarian organization providing emergency medical assistance to populations in danger in 70 countries around the world.
