HIV/AIDS: Financial Considerations – BasNews

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The financial perspective of AIDS contains areas connected to the impact on some countries’ national economy, depending on the prevalence rates. In many African countries, the number of people dying of AIDS creates a shortage of labour forces. In some regions, there are areas that have a population of people up to the age of 10 years, and then a gap to 45 years and older. The middle generations have died. Who is going to work? Who are going to make the national economy grow? Who will teach the children? Who will take care of the old people?

Furthermore, the financial perspective affect health prevention, care and treatment, including the vividly advocated issue about pharmaceutical companies and their demand for high prices on the anti-retroviral medicines (ARV). Should they be able to profit too much on their R&D-medicines or should they take on a corporate social responsibility earning less, possibly leading to decreased interest in research and to develop the next generations of more effective medicines?

With better financial assets, the opportunities for people in developing countries to take care of themselves and their families’ increase.

Still, suffering from HIV/AIDS often leads to a larger share of a person’s income must be spent on buying medicines, if they have access to them. At the same time they need to have money to purchase the type of food needed for the medicines to have its full effect.

For governments and NGOs, the need of money is both for buying medicines and distribute them amongst the people in need of it, as well as for spending funds on information about where to get tested, who to contact to find the medicines, how the medicines should be taken, and awareness information to the general public about the disease in order to reduce stigma. In this decision-making process, basic issues like water, electricity and other types of important infrastructure must also be addressed and taken into account when making priorities, and there are a lot of different priorities needed to use the financial assets as effective as possible. This is extremely important when the resources are limited.

Dealing with prevention needs resources, and I have seen a lot of these resources being spent on the medical side of societies’ efforts, even though it is more focused on care and treatment, and not prevention. Maybe this work is being more funded because of the higher status associated with it, and that many people believe HIV and AIDS is best dealt with by doctors and with medicines? The more a disease is associated with stigma and cultural taboo, the less doctors can do something about it with medicines.

At the World AIDS Conference 2008 in Mexico City, there were a lot of voices raised saying the world has so far been unable to properly address the behavioural change activities and methods in HIV prevention. I believe we need to reflect on how and why we put so much hope to the medical perspective, and why we have so difficult to advocate for the social and behavioural side of the prevention work, and supply it with enough time and funds.

Next article will be on the medical perspective.