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16 Jul 2006 12:13:55 GMT Reuters By Christian LoweST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 16 (Reuters) - The Group of Eight industrial nations renewed their pledge to fight the AIDS virus on Sunday but offered no detailed plan on how they would fund the ambitious targets they have set. Campaigners say rich countries must increase AIDS funding urgently or they will miss their own target, set at the G8 summit in Gleaneagles, Scotland, last year, of providing AIDS treatment to 4 million Africans by 2010. "Basically, we have slightly stronger words than Gleneagles but (are) still seriously short on the cash," said Max Lawson, a policy adviser with the Oxfam aid agency. A final communique on infectious diseases approved by the G8 leaders said they would work to secure funds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2006/7 -- a more precise timetable than before. The communique also expanded the G8's priorities in fighting AIDS to include prevention, instead of focusing just on treating people already infected. Campaigners welcomed the widened scope. Donors say G8 countries, taken together, are spending half of what is needed to meet the 2010 target. The Global Fund, which relies primarily on government contributions, says it urgently needs nearly $1 billion just to meet its existing commitments. "NO CLEAR SIGNAL""What we were hoping for here was a concrete, time-bound plan, costed and with clear financial commitments," said Oliver Buston, European director for DATA, a lobby group led by Irish rock star Bono. "We haven't got it. We have got some firming up of the commitment in some ways but we haven't got a clear signal the global fund is going to be scaled up to meet the challenge." The G8 communique said combating AIDS "will continue to be one of our top priorities. We remain committed to halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS." Another lobby group said it was disappointed the statement contained no plan to reverse the drain of healthcare workers from African countries to the developed world. "There is aid going to clinics that do not have any nurses," said Kate Krauss of Physicians for Human Rights. G8 leaders said in the communique they recognised the shortage of healthcare workers in poor countries and would support efforts to tackle it. But Krauss said: "There is still no investment and no specific plan to address this shortfall in health workers from G8 countries." Russia, host for this year's summit, made fighting infectious diseases one of the key themes. The communique also said G8 leaders were determined to achieve progress on fighting tuberculosis and malaria, and on responding effectively to outbreaks of bird flu and preparing for a possible human influenza pandemic. Scientists say a pandemic might occur if the bird flu virus mutates so it can be transmitted from human to human. |
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