Publication Date: 05/01/2006

Description: The report is an update of Missing the Target – the International report on scale-up of AIDS treatment in six countries around the world, released last November. The report received international media attention and its major recommendations were endorsed by the Lancet Infectious Diseases in January 2006. The report is written by ITPC researchers in Russia, India, Nigeria (three of the "next wave" countries with explosive epidemics), the Dominican Republic, Kenya and South Africa. The bottom line: ITPC found that the world will fall far short of the internationally declared goal of "near universal access" to AIDS treatment unless specific barriers to treatment scale up are addressed urgently. Our update finds that despite some progress, serious barriers – including halfhearted national and international leadership, weak management at all levels, sluggish implementation of reforms, poor logistics and technical support, and serious funding shortfalls – have not been adequately addressed and continue to plague delivery of AIDS treatment in less developed countries. Unless real change happens in the way national and international programs do business, the pledge to provide universal access by 2010 will be a cruel joke for people living with HIV and AIDS around the world.