AIDS: muito ou pouco recurso?

Não gosto de falar que há setores da saúde com excesso de recursos. Soa hipócrita e, na maioria das vezes, cruel. Mas, que houve exagero nas estatísticas sobre aids, eu não tenho dúvida. Abaixo, a discussão sobre o tema feita por um dos ativistas pró-aids. No Brasil, a questão é de entendimento simples: há mais de vinte anos, a aids era doença de ator, publicitário,médico, cantor e, recursos não faltaram. Agora, a doença atinge mais os pobres e será bom que continue bem financiada. Senão, assistiremos a mais uma crueldade brasileira.

Backlash Brews Against AIDS Support Posted by Marilyn Chase “Right now we’re seeing a backlash against AIDS,” longtime AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves declared in a plenary address today at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Some health and development specialists are arguing over the attention paid to the disease. AIDS, some say, is exaggerated as a threat, AIDS gets too much money, and AIDS is destroying health systems. Many people agree that basic health-care systems need strengthening around the world. Gonsalves (pictured) is one of them. But he argued that a retreat from the roaring pandemic affecting 33 million is not the way to go. Good health systems need to simultaneously attack specific disease threats and provide a breadth of basic health services. Taking resources from the AIDS epidemic, he said, would be an exercise in “doing less for less …. provid(ing) a few basic interventions because doing more will create unsustainable entitlements for the poor.” Gonsalves labels this thinking “ Malthusianism for the masses, while (proponents) have access to the highest level of care for themselves and their families.” Maybe the best answer boils down to good management. Well-managed AIDS programs seek to build up systems by training workers, building clinics and labs. Sometimes they shine a light on health gaps — as did the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships in Botswana, the free AIDS drug program by Merck and the Gates Foundation that languished unused until needed clinic infrastructure was created.