HIV funding is critical despite economic crisis

Prevention is critical to decreasing the prevalence of the costly HIV/AIDS illness. Average costs for HIV treatment are between $14,000 and $20,000 a year per person, some of which may be offset by purchasing prescription medications for less at a Canadian online pharmacy.

According to Bill Gates, AIDS prevention advocate, although there have been significant advances in fighting HIV/AIDS, there is much still to do before the tides are turned, as reported by Reuters.

Gates told the news provider that the economic crisis in wealthy nations is threatening AIDS funding. HIV prevention and treatment funding totaled $16.8 last year. Of that, $8.2 billion came from wealthy international sources, half of which was donated by the U.S. For the first time, poor and middle-income countries surpassed contributions of affluent nations at $8.6 billion.

An estimated 5 million people worldwide were infected with HIV with no hope of recovery in 1986 according to the World Health Organization. The infection first reported on by the CDC in 1981 has become a worldwide pandemic with 34 billion people infected as of 2010 reported by UNAIDS. In the years that followed, world leaders, health officials and medical professionals worked tirelessly to improve the numbers and now, according to the news coming from the 2012 AIDS conference, global AIDS deaths are down to 1.7 million since 2010. Funding for vaccines is critical to further lowering that number.