Burundi will need US$159 million over the next five years to roll back the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country, said the country’s Public Health Minister, Dr. Emmanuel Gikoro. Gikoro declared Saturday on the national radio station that a request sent to the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, was already agreed in principle. The number of HIV-positive people in Burundi is estimated at 220,000, which is a national prevalence rate of four per cent among adults aged 15-49 years. In late December 2007, about 10,000 patients were under antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, out of 50.000 people suffering from AIDS, who aspire for treatment, according to officials of the country’s HIV/AIDS control programme. Since last year, Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has lim ited its assistance to Burundi, due to administrative mismanagement of means and national programmes to fight AIDS. This measure brought about a shortage of ARV on which the AIDS victims depend. Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza considered the donors’ refusal to assist his country in the fight against AIDS as tantamount to a genocide.
