Africa: G8 Summit AIDS Funding Pledges Still Not Enough To Fight Pandemic

Even if the Group of Eight industrialized nations fulfilled pledges they made at their annual summit in July to increase funding for HIV/AIDS, the amount still would fall short of what is needed to fight the pandemic worldwide, U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis warned on Monday, the Financial Times reports. During the summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders of the G8 nations agreed to an immediate doubling of overall aid to Africa to $50 billion annually by 2010 to fight poverty and disease on the continent.