AIDS funding is in crisis. Who will step up? →

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Scientists say the tools are available to end the AIDS epidemic. But public health interventions are running out of money. And even as officials talk about the approaching end of a pandemic that has killed more than 35 million people, the goal of eradicating AIDS is looking ever further away.

Funding has dropped before, but this time seems different, said Mike Podmore, the director of STOPAIDS. Global fatigue has set in after nearly two decades of funding the AIDS response. Donors are pushing middle-income countries to take on a greater share of funding their HIV/AIDS programs, but health budgets and systems are already stretched. Some costs can be cut by delivering services more efficiently, though that approach is unlikely to bring about the end of AIDS.

All this added up means the indefinite continuation of the world’s deadliest epidemic. Read more.

The world spent $1 billion less on AIDS, jeopardizing decades of progress →

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The 21st International AIDS Conference convened last week amid an emerging global consensus that the end to an epidemic that has killed 35 million people might be achievable. Just weeks before the conference, a high-level meeting of United Nations members in New York issued a declaration renewing commitments to end AIDS by 2030.
That optimism faded as delegates arrived in Durban to news that donor countries had reduced global HIV funding by more than $1 billion from 2014 to 2015. The reduction could jeopardize the remarkable gains made from investments over nearly two decades, including tens of billions of dollars from the United States.

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As AIDS money shrinks, who loses? →

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As the global public health community gathered in the South African city of Durban this week to talk about the end of AIDS, they were greeted with news that annual international support for combating the epidemic had fallen by more than US$1 billion.

Many of the world’s middle-income countries say they are willing to take on that challenge, and with it the opportunity to assume more control in guiding their national programs. However, there are deep concerns, both among officials and activists.

Governments fret that there is not enough time to plan and guide the rapid pace of the transition, which could cause critical services to be interrupted. And civil society groups are concerned that the move to greater dependence on domestic funding will allow administrations that already criminalize specific groups – including gay men and sex workers – to drop HIV services for them entirely. Read more.

A new era in digital health →

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More than a decade of experimentation in digital health has seen the rise of a range of innovations that build on the promise that emerging technologies can dramatically improve health care, especially in low- and middle-income settings.

What has also emerged is a range of challenges, as innovators have wrestled with everything from building partnerships to reproducing successful programs in new settings. One of the biggest hurdles has been how to channel the lessons from the proliferation of projects that never grew beyond their pilot stage into scalable interventions. Read more.

Refugee women create economic opportunities →

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In 2008, when fighting broke out near her home in North Kivu province, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s, Kathy Mbweki fled with her family to neighboring Uganda. Mbweki and her husband struggled to pay rent and to feed their five children in the capital, Kampala, and after two years decided to move to a refugee settlement in western Uganda.
They received a plot of land and made some money selling the produce they grew, but Mbweki said it was still a constant struggle to stay afloat -- especially because the children were constantly falling sick. So two years later they decided to try to make it in Kampala again -- except this time she had a plan.

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Israel's forgotten refugees: African asylum seekers trapped in limbo →

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Thousands of African asylum seekers have fled to Israel, only to be systemically ostracized by a government that has made it clear it wants nothing more than for them to leave. The situation is especially difficult for women, who sometimes experience abuse from their partners and their employers or have particular health concerns, but without access to vital social services. Read more.

Yellow fever continues to spread in Angola →

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Although an emergency meeting of health experts last month stopped short of calling the yellow fever outbreak in Angola a global public health emergency, humanitarian groups on the ground warn the epidemic is still far from over. Even as the number of newly reported cases declines, the disease continues to spread. If it reaches areas with low vaccination coverage, the outbreak could flare up again. Read more.

Protests and clashes likely just the start of political unrest in Kenya →

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Kenya’s national elections are more than a year away, but political tensions are already rising. Starting in late April, the main political opposition group began organizing a near-weekly protest against the commission charged with organizing the vote. It has accused the commission’s members of being in the pocket of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is set to stand for a second term. The recent demonstrations have consistently been met with widespread police brutality; at least three protesters were killed during the latest incident late last month.

Following those deaths, Kenyatta’s government and the opposition have started negotiations, and future demonstrations have been temporarily suspended. Even if they reach a compromise on this issue, though, there is every reason to suspect it is only the first in what promises to be a year of political clashes. Whether those battles tip over into further physical violence is up to the country’s leaders. Read more.

Why South Sudan faces a critical drugs shortage →

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South Sudan’s health system faces a crisis nearly a year in the making. Health centers across the country are experiencing dangerous stock outs of the medicines needed to treat the most basic health problems. Beyond leaving patients without immediate medical care, it also means parts of the country are now unequipped to stem potential disease outbreaks. Read more.