Global Fund Director Richard Feachem Gives Interview, Takes Questions By E-Mail
Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in a recent interview with the International AIDS Economics Network discussed several topics including HIV/AIDS in India, Global Fund resources mobilization, monitoring and evaluation, metrics of success, procurement of drugs and other materials and proposals to the fund for disease treatment and prevention programs. Having recently returned from a trip to India, Feachem said that there was awareness of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in that country but that much more needs to be done on the "preventive side and on the treatment side." India could become "the major" AIDS epidemic in the world, Feachem said, adding that the country could also be a "the turning point" in the battle against the disease. "If India succeeds, the world succeeds, and if India fails, the world fails," Feachem said. Feachem confirmed that the Global Fund will need to receive $6.3 billion during 2003-2004 to meet its goals. The fund will focus on procuring donations from the G8 countries and will try to get those countries to "front-load" their pledges (IAEN interview, 3/19). The interview is part of IAEN's Global Dialogue Series, in which the organization interviews an expert in the field of AIDS and economics every other month. The entire Feachem interview is available online. Questions and feedback for Feachem can be posted until March 26 at http://www.iaen.org/globdial/feachem/survey.php. In January, IAEN featured an interview with Dr. Josh Ruxin, co-coordinator of the HIV/AIDS task force of the U.N. Millennium Project (IAEN Web site, 3/21).
This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.