Current and Future Resources for HIV/AIDS

Policymakers need a reasonably complete picture of resource flows from sources to uses that finance HIV/AIDS prevention care support and treatment. Without that picture they risk misallocation waste and faulty strategic planning. For now in most parts of the developing world the picture remains largely unpainted. Filling in the details on financing is among the key challenges to HIV/AIDS policymakers today. Limited data for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region countries offer virtually the only cases of adequate resource flow data outside the United States. Those countries spent a thousand dollars per person living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in 2000. The U.S. federal government’s Medicaid program for indigents spent 35 times as much for each AIDS patient under its care in that same year. Low-income countries largely dependent on donor assistance spent far less per person and per PLWHA—as little as 31 cents per person and eight dollars per PLWHA in sub-Saharan Africa. These enormous disparities underline a dual challenge: First use what little money is available in poor countries very effectively; and second demonstrate to all concerned that more resources must be forthcoming to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic in poor countries lest the negative effects swamp any effort to develop. (authors)