To explore grant and country characteristics associated with the performance of tuberculosis (TB) grants supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), which uses performance-based funding of grants.

This article provides an overview of the HIV epidemic in Asia, the context within which the epidemic is evolving, and the key actions to address the challenges faced by countries and risk groups. HIV epidemics across Asia are predominantly concentrated among most-at-risk populations. Although there have been many successes in the HIV response in Asia over the past decade, great challenges clearly remain – especially when addressing most-at-risk populations, who are often criminalized, marginalized, and discriminated against. These groups face significant legal and social barriers to accessing HIV prevention and treatment services. In order to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halting and reversing the spread of HIV by 2015 and to achieve universal access to HIV treatment, these barriers must be overcome across Asia. High-impact programs must be targeted at those in need, with continuous and predictable funding for a sustainable response that incorporates prevention and treatment scale-up. Strong political leadership and the involvement of affected communities are key to developing a systematic and comprehensive response. The potential consequences of inaction in Asia are enormous: even small increases in the HIV prevalence levels in the region will translate into vast numbers of new HIV infections due to the sheer size of the population.

This paper draws on published reports, data from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and the Asian Development Bank, and analysis by the Commission on AIDS in Asia to estimate financial resources required to achieve universal access for HIV in low-income and middle-income countries of Asia. It explores optimal use of available resources to mount effective response to AIDS in Asia against an uncertain economic climate. Although there is global commitment to tackle the HIV pandemic, available financing falls short of minimum requirements to achieve universal access to prevention and treatment. To support essential HIV priorities in Asia, the Commission on AIDS in Asia estimated annual resource needs to be US$ 3.1 billion. Yet, in 2007, according to one study, estimated total public spending on AIDS in 14 major Asian countries was only US$ 0.9 billion. Hence, scarce resources need to be carefully applied to address the concentrated HIV epidemics in Asia and achieve universal coverage by prioritizing investment in high-impact interventions to maximally avert new infections and deaths, intensifying multisectoral efforts through catalytic financing that mainstreams HIV interventions into existing services, particularly for low-impact prevention programs, and ensuring countries with growing economies mobilize increased amounts of domestic funding to match international financing.

Studies on the relevance of stronger health systems to the success of vertical programmes has focused mainly on developing countries with fragile infrastructures and limited human resources. Research in middle-income, and particularly post-Soviet, settings has been scarce. This article examines the relationships between health system characteristics and the HIV response in Russia, the country which towards the end of the Soviet period had the world’s highest ratios of doctors and hospital beds to population and yet struggled to address the growing threat of HIV/AIDS.

This study compares client volume, demographics, testing results, and costs of 3 “mobile” HIV counseling and testing (HCT) approaches with existing “stand-alone” HCT in Kenya. A retrospective cohort of 62,173 individuals receiving HCT between May 2005 and April 2006 was analyzed. Mobile HCT approaches assessed were community-site mobile HCT, semimobile container HCT, and fully mobile truck HCT. Data were obtained from project monitoring data, project accounts, and personnel interviews.