Experts at the 20th International AIDS Conference held in Melbourne, Australia from July 20-25 warned that funding for HIV prevention for individuals who inject drugs is in crisis. The announcement comes amidst a panoptic pull in funding from places that most require it, across countries in the western hemisphere, including the United Kingdom (UK).

“We’re facing a perfect storm of donor retreat, national neglect and massive overspending on ineffective and often counterproductive drug enforcement,” said Susie McLean, senior adviser on drug use and HIV at the International HIV/Aids Alliance.

Groups present at the conference intend on publishing a report that implicates changing donor policies and national government neglect, two negative and unpredictable factors characteristic of a ‘perfect storm’ in the loss-of-funding debacle. Harm Reduction International, the International Drug Policy Consortium and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance say their report urges the consideration of the consequences of a lack of funding on the spread of the pandemic; surges in HIV transmission, and a consequential increase in costs to government health sectors.

The report shows that 75 percent of drug-injectors inhabit middle-income countries. In these middle-income countries, more than two-fifths of new HIV infections are among drug-injectors. Donors are withdrawing funding as a result of the middle-income status of affected countries, often without realising the long-term consequences to other low-income countries who depend on the funding.

According to UNAids, the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, $2.3 billion will be needed to fund HIV prevention for drug-injectors in 2015 alone. Of that, a grand total of $160 million – approximately 7 percent – has been invested by international donors. The change in donor policy has left over half of the 58 dependent countries ineligible for support or without any ‘new’ HIV funding.

This has subsequently put great pressure on the Global Fund, the party majorly responsible for the distribution of HIV treatment programmes. The Department of International Development has been pushing for the allocation of funding for treatment programmes to be focused on low-income countries.