Several conversations came out the pan-African healthcare conference in Nairobi that discussed managing HIV and Aids in Africa and made a slew of resolutions from the delegates from over 40 countries.

“Changing course in managing Aids in Africa at this juncture is abandoning a battle whose victory is well within sight,” warned Dr Stephen Karau, the Country Director Aids Health Care Foundation.

Rangaiyan Gurumurthy of UNAids added: “Pay more now or pay forever”, while Jorge Saavedra of HOHE was even more pragmatic: “There is need to change the way we think  — more towards ending the epidemic than sustaining it through the better use of resources.

And they are all right given the magnitude of the task that is managing prevalence of HIV and combating its spread so as to ensure that the next generation is an Aids-free one. One problem, though, is the dependence on most eastern and southern Africa countries on donor funding to sustain these programmes. Forever.

That is highly unlikely, but when the first Aids cases appeared in Africa, it was like a blast of cold water to the face and donors responded to the pandemic that was leaving whole families, villages and generations dead. The infected grew exponentially, while those affected as family members, neighbours, workmates and whole national economies hung on the brink.

However, the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) initiative dedicated to saving the lives of those suffering from HIV/Aids around the world, alongside the Global Fund (GF) whose mandate encompasses the fight against Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, other Western development partners and a handful of Civil Society Organisations Africa has made significant strides in combating the spread of HIV.

Indeed, one authority opines that PEPFAR and GF have been key to averting deaths, easing pain and suffering while improving the quality of life for people living with and affected by Aids across Africa.

Rules of engagement

Their contribution has been critical given that most governments have not committed substantive funds to healthcare. In fact, the combined force of PEPFAR and GF supports more than 80% of the HIV programmes in Africa.

It has facilitated HIV testing and counselling of more than 46.5 million people, provided 750,000 women with antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission and thereby enabled 230,000 infants to be born HIV-free.

The Global Fund has since 2002, supported programs in 151 countries providing Aids treatment for 4.2 million people, availed anti-TB treatment to 9.7 million people and distributed 310 million insecticide-treated nets.

Figures don’t lie. This is a massive life-saving undertaking for a critical mass of humanity and the agreement at the Nairobi conference to keep the lines of communication open, work closer with civil society and other donors to avoid duplication in funding, standardise and formalise rules of engagement, engage more with smaller communities in marginalised areas and put the re-authorisation process back on the table.

It would be tragic to disengage and cut off this life-support abruptly.