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Bill Gates gives another $80m to battle HIV
Foundation Earlier Donated $258 Million To Indian Initiative .......Kounteya Sinha
New Delhi: India’s fight against HIV just got an $80 million push. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on Thursday increased its funding commitment to Avahan — its initiative to reduce the spread of HIV in India — to $338 million or Rs 1,652 crore.
Prior to the announcement, the foundation had committed $258 million to the programme. The announcement by Microsoft founder and one of the world’s richest men Bill Gates, who is in India, comes at a time when the foundation has been facing allegations that it failed to make a lasting impact in India’s HIV fight. It has also faced criticism for deciding to “shut down” Avahan and hand over the programme to government-run National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), which does not want to bear the burden. However, officials of the foundation told TOI, “BMGF does not believe in continuous funding. Avahan’s whole purpose was to equip India in its fight against HIV. We were to build the programme, help scale it up, make it sustainable and give it to its natural holders like members of the community or the government. The foundation launched Avahan in 2003 to help fight HIV in India for a decade.” The foundation said it was inaccurate to suggest that Avahan was about to wind down. Gates told TOI, “In fact, we have already awarded grants that extend into 2014. It’s not that the foundation is leaving India. The amount we spend in India on health and development will increase but will focus on other things like nutrition, maternal and child health and vaccines.” Avahan was helping India to expand HIV prevention programmes for sex workers, injection drug users and other groups at highest risk of infection. Gates said there was no evidence for the claim that Avahan had failed to make a serious difference in India’s fight against AIDS. “Lot of research is being done on the numbers — effect of Avahan on HIV, its effect on the community, condom usage, reduced violence among risk groups or sexually transmitted diseases,” he said. The foundation said there was no reason why NACO could not run the programme. Gates will meet health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday to discuss HIV/AIDS, transition of Avahan to the government. Avahan has already awarded more than $100 million in grants for this transition. As of July 2009, the foundation has given nearly $1 billion for health and development projects in India. ‘It’s now or never to eradicate polio’ New Delhi: India’s inability to stamp out polio has raised serious fears that the virus causing the crippling disease might never be eradicated. In an ominous warning, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told TOI on Thursday that those implementing the programme, funding agencies and common people will soon feel fatigue, thanks to the virus constantly making a comeback. Gates said, “We have spent money in India’s polio projects We have to get polio eradicated with urgency. If we don’t get it eradicated now, we may never be able to get it done.” Polio cases have been piling up in India every year. Even though transmission of P1 (the most dangerous strain of polio virus) has almost been arrested in UP and Bihar in the last one year, India is earning the dubious distinction of having the world’s highest number of polio cases. Gates said, “Since we are close to eradicating polio, with the number of cases actually low, the amount of money being spent on one child death is astronomical.” |
