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.

The Millennium Development Goal target for tuberculosis control is to halt the spread of tuberculosis by 2015, and begin to reverse the worldwide incidence. After the introduction of standard control practices in 1995, 36 million people were cured and about 6 million deaths were averted. However, substantial scientific advances and innovative solutions are urgently needed together with creative new strategies. Strong international and national political commitment is essential. Urgent action is needed by national governments to fund their own programmes, and for the G8 countries and other donor governments and organisations to support governmental and non-governmental efforts. To foster the global need for urgent action to control the tuberculosis epidemic, The Lancet, in collaboration with the Stop TB Partnership, WHO, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the experts participating in this Series, is launching The Lancet TB Observatory, which will assess and monitor progress in tuberculosis control and research, assess domestic and global financing, regularly disseminate information, and advocate for intensified efforts with stakeholders at all levels.

Weak health systems are hindering global efforts for tuberculosis care and control, but little evidence is available on effective interventions to address system bottlenecks. This report examines published evidence, programme reviews, and case studies to identify innovations in system design and tuberculosis control to resolve these bottlenecks. We outline system bottlenecks in relation to governance, financing, supply chain management, human resources, health-information systems, and service delivery; and adverse effects from rapid introduction of suboptimum system designs. This report also documents innovative solutions for disease control and system design. Solutions pursued in individual countries are specific to the nature of the tuberculosis epidemic, the underlying national health system, and the contributors engaged: no one size fits all. Findings from countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam, suggest that advances in disease control and system strengthening are complementary. Tuberculosis care and control are essential elements of health systems, and simultaneous efforts to innovate systems and disease response are mutually reinforcing. Highly varied and context-specific responses to tuberculosis show that solutions need to be documented and compared to develop evidence-based policies and practice.

Injecting drug use is a major driver of the HIV epidemic globally. Whilst robust evidence points to the effectiveness of harm reduction programmes to halt and reverse injecting drug use driven epidemics, uptake of these programmes in developing and transitional countries has been slow. In part, this slow uptake stems from inadequate financial resources for harm reduction; legal, socio-cultural and medical barriers leading to stigmatisation; and weak health systems unequipped to manage marginalized groups. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, established in 2002, has become the major multilateral source of external funding for harm reduction programmes in countries experiencing concentrated HIV epidemics driven by injecting drug use. Between 2004 to end of 2008, the Global Fund invested around US$180 million in harm reduction programmes in 42 countries. This funding has helped to initiate and scale up harm reduction programmes in settings where domestic funding was lacking. In addition to financing harm reduction programmes globally, the Global Fund has stimulated a strong dialogue between vulnerable groups and governments. Furthermore, the Global Fund has engaged in a dialogue with countries to encourage an evidence-based approach to policy-making that recognizes the immense value of harm reduction in HIV prevention and control.