PHA-Exchange> Frenchman to lead fund fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/08/europe/EU-MED-Global-Fund-Director.php


Frenchman to lead fund fighting AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria

GENEVA: Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, France's ambassador for the international 
battle against the AIDS
epidemic, was chosen Thursday to head the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, 
Tuberculosis and Malaria,
ending months of uncertainty for the US$7 billion (€5.4 billion) 
organization.

Kazatchkine, a former director of the French National Agency for AIDS 
research, will succeed Briton
Richard Feachem, whose term at the head of the independent fund expires in 
March and who has
recently come under fire over allegations of lavish spending habits.

Global Fund spokesman Jon Liden said Kazatchkine was elected by a two-thirds 
majority vote of the
fund's board comprised of national health officials, U.N. and World Bank 
representatives, company
executives and campaigners. The other candidates under consideration were 
Dr. David Nabarro, who has
been guiding the United Nations' efforts against the deadly bird flu virus, 
and Ugandan AIDS chief
Alex Coutinho.

Kazatchkine, a 60-year-old immunologist who studied at 
Necker-Enfants-Malades in Paris and the
Harvard Medical School in Boston, said he would focus on strengthening 
partnerships at the global
and local levels to "fight against three deadly diseases that kill 15,000 
people a day."

"I've been described ... as a scientist, as a diplomat, as a public health 
expert," he told
journalists on a conference call. "But my very first quality, somehow, is to 
be a physician. I have
been a physician treating patients with AIDS for over 20 years."

The Global Fund was an initiative conceived by the world's richest 
governments at the 2001 Group of
Eight economic summit in Genoa, Italy, where they pledged to step up funding 
to fight HIV/AIDS and
other global epidemics.

It has spent some US$3.3 billion in more than 130 countries since it was 
created, providing
treatment for more than 770,000 people with AIDS and 2 million others with 
tuberculosis. It has
given out more than 18 million bed nets to prevent bites from the mosquitoes 
that spread malaria.

The Geneva-based body had been trying to find a successor to Feachem for 
months, but its board could
not reach consensus on a single candidate and put the decision off at a 
conference in Guatemala last
November.

The fund also has been on the defensive because of allegations that Feachem 
spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars (euros) on limousines, expensive meals, boat cruises 
and other expenses.

The Boston Globe revealed earlier this week the details of an internal 
investigation, which
suggested Feachem's spending habits created "potential risks," including 
loss of donor confidence
because of "inadequate internal controls over funds."

Global Fund officials disputed the accuracy, context and fairness of the 
inspector-general's report.

"I am not familiar with the inspector-general's report," Kazatchkine said. 
"Whether that should be
made public or not, I cannot really express an opinion here."

The fund receives its contributions from governments as well as from 
business corporations and
private foundations. The U.S. government provides about a third of all 
funding and is the largest
donor. Last week, the House of Representatives approved a US$724 million 
(€557 million) contribution
to the fund.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest private contributor, 
having pledged a total of
US$650 million.

Kazatchkine began working with AIDS in 1983 as a young clinical 
immunologist, when he treated a
French couple who had returned from Africa with unexplained immune 
deficiency, according to a
biography posted on the Web site of the French Foreign Ministry.

He started a clinic in Paris two years later that is still in operation, 
currently treating more
than 1,600 people. He has published over 600 research papers and led 
France's AIDS research
institute, the world's second largest with a budget of US$65 million, from 
1998-2005.

Kazatchkine also has experience with AIDS programs in Africa, Asia, Eastern 
Europe and South
America, according to the ministry, for which he has worked since 2005 as 
global HIV/AIDS and
communicable diseases ambassador.

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