World Aids Day

Aids is the "greatest disaster in history" - the Global Fund

In a HARDtalk interview on 1 December to mark World Aids Day, Gavin Esler talks to the head of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Dr Richard Feachem, about whether his organisation can make a difference in the battle to tackle the diseases.

An estimated 42 million people around the world are now living with the Aids virus.

It is estimated that 300 million people will develop malaria each year.

And someone in the world is newly infected with tuberculosis every second.

The Global Fund was set up two years ago to inject a large amount of money into programmes working to prevent and treat the three diseases.

global challenge

The executive director of the fund, Dr Richard Feachem, describes Aids as the greatest disaster in history.

He says the battle to try to reduce infection rates and treat those infected is a global challenge.

"In Zambia it (Aids) is killing school teachers at twice the rate that school teachers are being trained. That leads to the collapse of the education system," he told HARDtalk.

denial

He says governments have been in denial about the problem for far too long.

The fund says China and India are time-bombs for the world and the governments there are only starting to come to terms with the problem.

"I think India has some way to go to fully recognise the magnitude of what is happening to their country."

Dr Feachem says the rich countries also need to realise Aids is raging out of control.

"It's alarming to me to see the degree to which the wealthy countries of the north have not yet fully woken up to the global devastation, the global destabilisation."

The Global Fund relies on rich countries to give it money.

It says it needs about $6 billion a year to be able to make a real difference.

And it's hoping to reach that level within three to four years.

"If we don't get it we'll keep fighting. We don't accept defeat on this because if this money does not come in we know it's going to translate into a pandemic that is not successfully fought. And that doesn't bear thinking about."

Dr Feachem also says it is irresponsible for religious leaders to campaign against the use of condoms, as some Catholic leaders have done.

HARDtalk can be seen on BBC World at 04:30 GMT, 11:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT, 19:30 GMT and 00:30 GMT

It can also be seen on BBC News 24 at 04:30 and 23:30