The United Nations said yesterday that funding to fight the global AIDS epidemic must be quadrupled to 42 billion dollars over the next three years, claiming that this year’s expected budget—$10 billion—will not be sufficient in providing “universal care” to all people living with the virus by 2010.

UNAIDS, the UN’s AIDS agency, released a report yesterday at a meeting Berlin aimed at collecting funding pledges from world leaders. The report warns that inaction will only fuel the epidemic, which will cost more money and lives in the years to come.

“The high levels of funding that will be needed to move toward universal access in the coming years reflect the world’s failure to respond to the epidemic before it achieved crisis proportions,” the report says.

The $42 billion would provide antiretroviral drugs to about 4.6 million people living with HIV.