Africa’s AIDS Treatment Requirement Hit $12b

There are indications that Africa will need at least $12billion from now to 2015 to respond to issues of HIV/ADIS. This amount is $4billion higher than the current spending in the region.

This hint was given by the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS UNAIDS at the 18th African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, just as a Nigerian scientist, Professor Oluwole Makinde received the 2011 Kwame Nkrumah award of excellence in science from the African Union .

UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé who disclosed this urged African governments to embark on a greater share of AIDS investments in their own countries and across the region.

Addressing an audience of Heads of State and Government attending the AU summit, Sidibe said financing a sustainable response to the HIV epidemic in Africa will require home grown and innovative solutions that meet the needs of the African people.

Quoting a new UNAIDS issues brief titled “AIDS dependency crisis: sourcing African solutions, he noted that an estimated two-thirds of AIDS expenditures in Africa come from international funding sources.

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