A different view of HIV/AIDS-relief funds in Mozambique.
A different view of HIV/AIDS-relief funds in Mozambique.
复制标题
对莫桑比克艾滋病毒/艾滋病救济资金的不同看法。
DOI：
10.1016/s1473-3099(09)70335-4
复制
发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Vermund,StenH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Moon,TroyD;Sidat,Mohsin;Vergara,Alfredo;Vermund,StenH
Paul Johnson, a former American Peace Corps volunteer and present US medical student, claims that there is corruption in the use of funds allocated to Mozambique through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 1 As PEPFAR-implementing partners in Mozambique, working specifically in the rural district in which Johnson lived and worked as a Peace Corps volunteer (in education and not health), we wish to offer what we believe is a more balanced perspective. Johnson suggests, but does not document, three offences: widespread falsification of an individual’s HIV status for monetary gain, manipulation of data related to prevention activities for monetary gain, and “endemic” corruption because of the lack of oversight. Have any of the problems described by Johnson ever happened in Mozambique? Surely it is possible, although over the 3 years of our programme in Zambezia we have not witnessed these problems. Are there areas in which the government of Mozambique and its PEPFAR partners can improve? Yes, surely, although the same could be said of any health ministry or department, including those in the USA. We would argue, however, that the extent of these problems is not severely affecting the response to the AIDS epidemic and, as Johnson stated,“detracting from the overall public health effort” in Mozambique. 1 As one of the world’s most resource-limited nations, Mozambique ranks 175 of 179 nations in the UNDevelopment Programme’s Human Development Report. 2 Mozambique is fighting to control HIV/AIDS and to improve the health of its population in general with a woefully inadequate primary health-care system and severe shortages of health personnel, including the lowest nurse to population ratio in the world. 3 PEPFAR was originally designed as an emergency response, such that activities have been implemented without the completion of the strengthening of institutional structures for transparency and oversight. Nevertheless, since the introduction of PEPFAR, great strides have been made in increasing access to life-saving drugs and developing both infrastructure and human capacity. Exhaustive efforts have been made by the government of Mozambique and its PEPFAR partners in creating those institutional structures necessary to provide transparency, oversight, and improved monitoring and evaluation of implemented activities. We appreciate concerns for human welfare, proper standards of HIV care, and fiscal accountability as expressed in the exposé. 1 However, we think the emphasis on negatives from PEPFAR to be misplaced, especially when on the basis of undocumented hearsay. A balanced article would highlight the evidence from southern Africa about the role of PEPFAR in infections prevented, lives saved, health restored, families kept intact, or children saved from death and
