Decisions on the trading floors London can mean life or death people with HIV

Right now almost seven million people living with HIV are at risk because of a lack of funding to pay for their treatment.

Millions of people living with HIV – including an estimated 1.4 million children – are missing out on life-saving drugs because of a massive shortfall of more than £1 billion from rich countries to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. And as rich countries cut their budgets this gap could widen.

For World Aids Day 2012 Bill Nighy visited Malawi to find out how decisions made on the trading floors of the City of London and Wall Street have meant life or death for millions of the world’s poorest people living with HIV.

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries with 12% of the population living with HIV. Because of money from the Global Fund Malawi has been able to put 350,000 people on treatment , and infection rates are down 72% since 2004. However, 650,000 are still going without treatment.

This is despite the fact it costs just 23 pence a day to keep someone with the HIV virus alive by giving them treatment with ARVs. Malawi faces a huge challenge with sustaining free HIV treatment for its poor infected population as the Global Fund lacks enough resources to commit to the country.

Should no resources be found by June 2014, Malawi will not be able to continue providing the HIV treatment to its population.

A Robin Hood tax could raise hundreds of billions, money from which could be used to make sure the next generation is Aids free.