The UK government is set to invest £10.7 million in researching how to prevent female adolescents and prisoners – two of southern Africa’s most vulnerable social groups – becoming infected with HIV.
The news comes shortly after the government announced that it is currently reviewing its funding for HIV/Aids programmes, which over the past three years has totalled £1 billion. The consultation period for the review is set to end on 21 July.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, international development minister and Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey & Wood Green Lynne Featherstone said that she considered the way funds have thus far been apportioned for HIV/Aids programmes has led to prevention being relatively neglected.
“The argument I have been making is that most of the resources are going to treatment,” said Featherstone, who last week was in Malawi, where 63% of people with HIV are receiving medication against the disease. “But all these things are very expensive. The emphasis has been on treatment,” she emphasised.
“Across the world, we have made huge strides in tackling HIV over the past decade. Yet new infection rates remain too high, particularly amongst adolescent girls. It is a sad fact that this vulnerable group is being left behind.
“I want to see zero new infections, zero deaths from HIV/Aids and zero discrimination. This won’t happen unless we prioritise marginalised groups. This means addressing stigma, empowering women and girls, and reducing the violence against them that makes them so vulnerable to the epidemic.”
In Malawi, young women and girls are nearly twice as likely to become infected in Malawi as their male counterparts. Those in prison are also very vulnerable. Across southern Africa, it is thought that as many as 15% of prisoners are HIV positive.
Spending on antiretroviral drugs enormously surpasses spending on prevention in southern Africa, largely because treatment is highly successful and cost-effective since the prices of antiretrovirals dropped under pressure from campaigners and the involvement of generic pharmaceutical companies.
Yet behavioural change campaigns have not shared the same level of success.
The UK government’s HIV/Aids strategy review will look to preventing infection as a way to reduce costs overall: if infections continue to rise, the pharmaceutical bills are logically set to increase also The strategy is intended to contribute to preventing 500,000 new infections among women by the end of next year.
