Donors need to maintain HIV/Aids funding, says UNAIDS director
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe says the drop in financing from donor countries in fighting HIV/AIDS is concerning.
Sidibe has been making his opening remarks at the official press conference on day one of the International AIDS Conference in Durban today.
He says as a result of the decline in financing, many countries have been forced to use their domestic resources.
He says South Africa has invested 1.6-billion dollars from its own budget.
Sidibe says without support, the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 will not be achieved.
"The risk is that we'll have a rebound in this epidemic and I cannot be dishonest with you. I need to say we will have a resistance. We are losing our investment.
"We will have to pay more later. We saw that with malaria - we've reached a level where we were able to think that we can control malaria. Today we have to put in a lot of money again because we stop," he said.
Actress and UN Ambassador for Peace Charlize Theron says the emphasis needs to be on adolescents, particularly young women and girls.
"HIV/Aids is the number one killer of adolescence in Africa - in sub-Saharan Africa. It is the number two killer of adolescence globally. Why are we not caring about that? This is not something that just affects Africans. This is a nationwide, global issue," she said.