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Aid group blasts inaction vs. HIV in Central, West Africa

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Graca Machel, right, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela makes a point about the rights of young adolescent women as actress Charlize Theron, 2nd from right, explains at the 2016 AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, Tuesday, July 19, 2016. The two were part of a panel that discussed the rights and difficulties faced by adolescents in the HIV/Aids epidemic. (AP Photo)

DURBAN, South Africa – Doctors Without Borders’ HIV policy adviser says the global aid group has “zero tolerance” for inaction on fighting the virus in Central and West Africa.

The organization says 4.5 million of the 6.5 million people living with HIV in those regions don’t get treatment.

Sharonann Lynch spoke to reporters Tuesday during the international AIDS conference in South Africa.

She said Doctors Without Borders has no tolerance for “essentially what will be bold-faced lies” to meet the goal of getting 30 million people on HIV treatment by 2020 if more funding and political will isn’t applied.

The goal was announced last month at a U.N. conference on AIDS.

A doctor with the aid group, Eric Goemaere, said almost half of the children born with HIV come from Central and West Africa.

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