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At the end of 2011, the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria stopped the majority of its funding to
the Secretriado National de Luta Contra le Sida (SNLS), the government
structure in charge of coordinating HIV prevention and treatment activities in
Guinea-Bassau, because of poor management and a lack of transparent financial
control.
The Fund’s decision was strengthened
in April 2012 following a coup d’etat after which the body charged with program
verification could not perform its function due to security concerns. Although
the Fund has continued to supply basic medicines and testing through their
Voluntary Pooled Procurement facility, the SNLS, which is responsible for
overseeing the transport of medicines to clinics and hospitals across the
country and for medicine storage, has no funds for staff salaries, transport,
or even electricity.
According to Alison Jenkins,
HIV/AIDS specialist at the UN Children’s Fund in Guinea-Bassau, only 16 percent
of HIV-positive children and 39 percent of HIV-positive men who were eligible
were receiving antiretroviral treatment at the end of March 2012. Of the adults
aged 15–49, 5.3 percent are estimated to have HIV/AIDS in Guinea-Bassau, with
women being three times more likely to be infected than men, according to a
2010 study.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
