DAILY NEWS (Deadline Edition)

July 13, 2012

MARCHERS gathered at the Durban City Hall yesterday to protest against the withdrawal of foreign funding for Aids treatment.

The US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids (Pepfar) recently stopped funding three Aids centres in Durban – at McCord and St Mary’s hospitals, and the Ithembalabantu Clinic in Umlazi.

Dr Duvai Mukuvisi, of the Aids Healthcare Foundation, one of the NGOs that joined the march, said cuts by Pepfar and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria represented an “alarming retreat on Aids treatment and care”.

“Without more resources for treatment, care and prevention.., the progress achieved over the past 30years of combating Aids could be lost,” said Mukuvisi.

“We can’t afford the global decline we are experiencing by global donors because the need for HIV/Aids treatment drugs is increasing daily.

“At the moment, out of 34 million people worldwide infected by the virus, only 5 million, are getting treatment drugs.”

The march was also part of the build-up to the International Aids Conference, to be held in Washington, DC on July 22.

TREATMENT SAVES LIVES: Protesters at the ‘Keep the promise’ march, aimed at lobbying global leaders to honour their commitment to funding HIV/Aids treatment. PICTURE: MARILYN BERNARD