The group of eight countries has contributed to progress in the war against HIV/AIDS and other major diseases like Polio, which it said, are closer to eradication than ever. The group has also sought more essential drugs and vaccines, increased contributions from the developing countries, and a better approach and greater collaboration with the private sector.
Health issues, particularly in Africa, were high on the agenda of the meeting -reflecting the priorities of the host country Japan, which is also the current G8 president. As agreed during their last meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, the G8 leaders have confirmed that they would work towards the goal of contributing at least $60 billion over five years for major infectious diseases and to strengthen basic health systems in Africa.
As part of its commitment, Japan has set aside $560 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria as part of the TICAD IV (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) meeting in May, 2008. The G8 also admitted that in some developing countries, the millennium development goals (MDGs)for child mortality and maternal health were seriously off-track.
A group of G8 health experts set up by Japan has outlined recommendations and a framework for action. It has said that the G8 would be accountable for meeting its goals and has agreed to monitor the progress through a follow-up mechanism.
The action plan presented by the health experts claimed substantial progress against HIV/AIDS and the other major infectious diseases. While there has been an overall decline in the incidence of TB and a 91% decrease in deaths from measles in Africa, overall progress is uneven and challenges remain, the group said. For TB, the international community is still off the track of the Global Plan to Stop TB, which aims to halve deaths by 2015 compared with 1990.
In order to halve deaths from malaria, the health group said that the 30 severely affected African countries needed to ensure that effective measures reached at least 85% of vulnerable population. These include treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy and long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, and the G8 said it was aiming to help provide 100 million of the latter by the end of 2010.
Things look brighter for polio, where the G8 reaffirmed that it would meet or increase agreed funding for the global eradication initiative, although no exact figures were given. The expert group highlighted estimates that at least $980 million was urgently needed for the period to 2012 for eradication.
However, the Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum, a coalition of Japanese NGOs working in various areas, said there was a disappointing level of action. The NGO said that only 0.7% of the rich countries’ gross national income (GNI) would enable MDGs in all areas to be met by 2015 and that none of the G8 countries have come close to achieving this.