Tough Choices but Aren't We Committed?

Not sure that I can put this article properly into a more general perspective but it seems to me that we've developed a commitment to treating AIDS that we have to see through. I tend to think other groups have more convincing claims, there are certainly very lethal diseases that can be treated more cheaply that have some hope of ultimately being eradicated. There is also a problem with the poor performance of the governments in the affected regions. Then there is the failure of programs designed to prevent infections leading towards an ever larger number of people getting infected despite treatment.

Despite all this, we've spent enough money on the programs and made enough commitments that it doesn't seem right that we aren't trying to find the resources to keep these programs funded. There is also the problem illustrated in the article of treatment resistant strains developing because of under-medication that poses an additional health threat. While I tend to believe we should have been spending the money on other diseases we could have made a bigger impact on all along we're far enough down the path that to maintain credibility we should be doing our best to increase funding and supporting anti-AIDS programs despite the difficulty. How many failures like Uganda does it take before people lose faith in our commitments to these sorts of programs?