African Nations Can Help More on AIDS, Study Measures

The 12 African countries that receive most of the American taxpayer dollars spent fighting AIDS could do much more to pay their own way, according to a new study. The study, by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Results for Development Institute in Washington, was published in the January issue of The Lancet Global Health and paid for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The wealthiest three — South Africa, Namibia and Botswana — could pay their own way soon “without too much fiscal pain,” said Robert Hecht, the institute’s managing director and a co-author. Self-reliance by the poorer countries is “pretty timid,” he said, “but even Mozambique could be spending five to 10 times what it does on health and AIDS.” The countries, ranked in order of richest to poorest based on gross domestic product per capita, are Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia. They account for 52 percent of AIDS cases worldwide and receive 83 percent of the aid donated by Pepfar, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Pepfar’s budget has been essentially flat for years even as the number of Africans who need antiretroviral drugs has rapidly grown.