Senate leader who helped sway Bush to triple Aids relief

As US politician and doctor Bill Frist works to save lives in Africa, media mogul Ted Turner quits job to concentrate on charity

Every year Bill Frist, the US Senate majority leader, steps off a bush plane in Africa, his doctor's bag in hand. While other politicians are enjoying their holidays, he is saving lives in some of the forgotten continent's most miserable corners.

"Africa opened my eyes," the former heart surgeon from Tennessee once said. Now he has returned the favour by helping to open American pockets, big and wide, for Africa.

Last Wednesday President Bush promised to triple US spending on Aids relief, up to $15bn (£9bn) over five years. It caught even his most ardent critics off guard.

Before, the administration was regarded as having a see-no-evil approach. Budgets were watered down after mammoth battles. The Christian conservative lobby didn't like condoms. Mr Bush himself was seen as beholden to the pharmaceutical companies fighting against cheaper generic versions of their anti-retroviral drugs.

Now the President has pulled off a spectacular U-turn. He will supply the generics to two million people, mostly in Africa. Another 10 million, some of them Aids orphans, will receive American care. And he will encourage, even pay for, the distribution of condoms.

Aids activists are in shock. "We had no inkling this was coming," Dr Chris Ouma, a campaigner with Action Aid in Kenya, said. "But it is very welcome. It signifies a big change towards Africa."

The discovery that the eclectic coalition of Christian evangelicals and liberal activists had been quietly pushing for the changes behind closed doors was just as astonishing.

But the move was no surprise to Dr Frist, tipped by some as a future vice-president, who welded the two schools of thought together.

Dr Frist has been coming to Africa for the past six years, working mainly through Samaritan's Purse, the charity run by Franklin Graham, the son of the the evangelist Billy Graham.

He has a reputation as a conservative with a liberal's heart, at least on social issues – he has stood up to anti-abortion activists in the cloning debate, and joined the Irish rock star Bono and the Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs as Africa's champions in Washington.

Just before Christmas he was in Kenya, visiting Aids victims in the Nairobi slums. "He sat in a mud hut for 45 minutes talking to a dying woman. It's got nothing to do with politics; he wasn't looking for her vote. He was just genuinely interested in her as a human being," Father Angelo D'Agostino said.

Testimonies from such trips have helped to sway hearts and minds among powerful Conservatives in Washington. Last year the famous foreign aid sceptic, Senator Jesse Helms, was reduced to tears in public when talking about Africa. Months later Bono went on an unprecedented four-country whirl with Paul O'Neill, then Treasury Secretary, who seemed moved by his experiences there.

The good works of Dr Frist and Mr Graham represents the soft edge of American evangelism abroad. Most Africans only see the Bible-thumping televangelists on stations such as Family TV in Kenya, where sharp-suited orators solicit contributions from viewers.

Some come to Africa from Europe or the United States, drawing massive crowds to rallies with promises of "miracle" cures. Smaller-scale African pastors have jumped on the bandwagon, offering similar cures to desperate Aids victims, who are so often disappointed.

The established churches have also been accused of being socially regressive. The Catholic Church maintains its opposition to condom use in public, and some bishops have actively spread misinformation about microscopic holes in condoms that allow the HIV virus to pass through.

But some priests and nuns working with Aids victims quietly disregard the sermons. "Whatever the church teaches, people are obviously using condoms all the time. And it's a very positive. The main thing is to keep the rate down," Father Gabriel Dolan said.

Bono's campaigning organisation, Data, has welcomed the new funding but said many questions remain unanswered about when it will materialise. Others have questioned why only $1bn of the additional $10bn is being channelled to the Global Fund on HIV, TB and Malaria.

African Aids workers have plenty of ideas about how Mr Bush's money should be spent. One of the key areas is anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. Last year campaigners won a court battle in South Africa allowing the importation of ARVs. But although prices have fallen even further, the drugs are still too expensive. In Kenya, the monthly cost of generic ARVs has fallen to 2,500 shillings (£20), yet no more than 4,000 of the 2.2 million HIV sufferers are using the drugs, Jane Masiga of the Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies said.

"That's the most painful thing. At our projects we find people who cannot even afford to eat, let alone buy the drugs," Dr Ouma of Action Aid said.

Sexual Abstinence Behind Uganda's AIDS Success Story Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Some experts say the dramatic drop in HIV/AIDS infections in Uganda is proof that abstinence from sex is the best way to combat the deadly disease, especially in the world's hardest-hit area, sub-Saharan Africa.

AIDS: The Untold Story ... ...the predominant subtype of the virus found in Western nations is HIV-I: subtype B, whereas in both Asia and Africa the predominant subtypes are C and E. This study may explain why we find heterosexual spread of HIV infection in Asia and Africa where subtypes HIV I: C and E predominate, but only rarely in Western nations where subtype B is found. It is presumed that homosexuals and IV drug users contract HIV I: subtype B readily because of their lifestyles involving needle sharing and rectal sex. (7) Dr. Essex's work, however, does not explain the heterosexual epidemic developing within black America today. This aberration may be explained by studies which have found that certain genetic factors predispose blacks to HIV infection. Researchers have recently identified two mutated genes in some whites that are not found in blacks; these altered genes protect their hosts from HIV infection. There may well be other yet unrecognized genetic factors which confer complete or partial immunity to whites, but these factors have yet to be identified. (8,9)

...Peter Duesberg on AIDS insists that there is no AIDS epidemic, and that most of those who are assumed to have died from AIDS have actually succumbed to the complications of drug usage, sexual stimulants, and AZT.

...A detailed analysis of Dr.Duesberg's arguments and his agenda is beyond the scope of this article. That subject is covered in my HIV-Watch newsletter, and in my monograph, "Population Control Agenda". Unfortunately, Dr. Duesberg's books have convinced many otherwise sincere people that there is no reason to institute standard public health measures to control further spread of the epidemic.

HIV/AIDS Statistics, NIAID Fact Sheet

As of the end of 2002, an estimated 42 million people worldwide - 38.6 million adults and 3.2 million children younger than 15 years - were living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately 70 percent of these people (29.4 million) live in Sub-Saharan Africa; another 17 percent (7.2 million) live in Asia.⁽¹⁾
Worldwide, approximately twelve of every 1000 adults aged 15 to 49 are HIV-infected. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 9 percent of all adults in this age group are HIV-infected. In 4 African countries, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 15 to 49 exceeds 30 percent.⁽¹⁾
Approximately 40,000 new HIV infections occur each year in the United States, about 70 percent among men and 30 percent among women. Of these newly infected people, half are younger than 25 years of age.^(3,4)
Of new infections among men in the United States, CDC estimates that approximately 60 percent of men were infected through homosexual sex, 25 percent through injection drug use, and 15 percent through heterosexual sex. Of newly infected men, approximately 50 percent are black, 30
As of December 31, 2001, 467,910 deaths among people with AIDS had been reported to the CDC.⁽⁵⁾ AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44, and is the leading cause of death for black men in this age group.⁽⁶⁾
The estimated annual number of AIDS-related deaths in the United States fell approximately 70 percent from 1995 to 2001, from 51,670 deaths in 1995 to 15,603 deaths in 2001.⁽⁵⁾
Of the estimated 15,603 AIDS-related deaths in the United States in 2001, approximately 52 percent were among blacks, 29 percent among whites, 18 percent among Hispanics, and less than 1 percent among Asians/Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives.⁽⁵⁾

Focus On The HIV-AIDS Connection Why is there overwhelming scientific consensus that HIV causes AIDS?

Alive and Well AIDS Alternatives Many experts contend that AIDS is not a fatal, incurable condition caused by HIV? That most of the AIDS information we receive is based on unsubstantiated assumptions, unfounded estimates and improbable predictions? That the symptoms associated with AIDS are treatable using non-toxic, immune enhancing therapies that have restored the health of people diagnosed with AIDS and that have enabled those truly at risk to remain well?

Unlike most AIDS organizations, we do not accept funding from the pharmaceutical industry, federal or local government, or any entity that may limit public access to factual information regarding HIV, AIDS and health.

HIV & AIDS - VirusMyth AIDS HomePage A growing group of bio-medical scientists claim the cause of AIDS is still unknown. These heretics do not believe in the lethal AIDS virus called HIV. They claim that the virus is indeed harmless. Most of them think AIDS is also not sexually transmitted; it probably has toxic causes. People die because they are poisoned to death by toxic antiviral drugs. Part of the AIDS dissidents even question the existence of a virus entity. These HIV skeptics say that the AIDS virus has never really been isolated, and the AIDS tests are worthless...

HIV & AIDS - Rethinking AIDS - Homepage The Group formed in 1991 in support of a STATEMENT calling for an independent, scientific, fact-based evaluation of the HIV-based model of AIDS. No medical journal would publish this letter, even after hundreds of physicians, biomedical scientists, and other professionals signed it.

The Group's members include biomedical scientists, physicians, and other professionals from around the world who encourage a serious and open evaluation of the HIV explanation of AIDS, as well as criticisms of and alternatives to it. The Group's members have identified solid scientific and other reasons to conclude that:

The phenomena labeled "HIV" may qualify as entirely harmless.
Illnesses diagnosed as "AIDS" may derive not from a retroviral infection, but rather from other factors....
Within the AIDS risk groups, conditions diagnosable as "AIDS" may appear at increased frequencies even among those who test negative on the "HIV tests." This would represent a reason to look beyond retrovirology in order to explain AIDS, and a need to reconsider the official AIDS definition, which limits diagnoses to patients whose blood reacts to these tests.
Pharmaceuticals prescribed to treat HIV infections may actually cause some cases of AIDS.
Most people who react positively on the "HIV tests" may possess no active HIV infections, including many AIDS patients.
Contrary to the public health message that "everyone is at risk for HIV and AIDS," the vast majority of even sexually active Americans have no significant risk of either.

Questions and Answers On Holes in Condoms The reports of holes in latex appear to have originated from an article in Science magazine about latex gloves, not condoms. Holes as large as 5 microns in diameter were evidently identified in latex used in gloves. However, gloves are only dipped in latex once when they are made, condoms are dipped in latex twice. Gloves are allowed to fail the water leak test at a rate of 40 per thousand, while condoms are only allowed 4 failures of the water leak test per thousand condoms before the entire batch of condoms is rejected. While holes large enough to allow HIV to pass through have been found in natural membrane condoms, latex condoms do not allow HIV to pass through the condom unless the condom has been damaged or torn. Used properly, latex condoms are effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection.

Guidance for Industry Surveillance and Detention Without Physical ... Consumers rely on condoms for protection from HIV (AIDS) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as well as for contraception. Defective condoms present a potential hazard to health. The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has found that some foreign manufacturers and shippers of condoms consistently fail to provide condoms of adequate quality for distribution into the United States. Therefore, continuous monitoring of these devices is needed.

June 1999 Condoms are an excellent product that seldom fails for birth control or disease prevention," says Paul J. Feldblum, an epidemiologist at the nonprofit Family Health International, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., group that studies both issues.

Condoms are also randomly sampled for factory water-leakage tests mandated by the Food and Drug Administration. (Condoms are regulated as medical devices, so the FDA inspects factories and on occasion samples condoms itself; other times it audits factory records.) Holes as small as 5 microns (about 0.0002 inch) can be detected. Only a fraction of condoms are tested with water--the test renders a condom unusable--but an entire production lot fails if the equivalent of 4 or more per 1,000 leak.

Citizens Against Government Waste

Since the first federal resources were made available to state and local health agencies for AIDS prevention in 1985, federal funding, which now includes money for research, treatment, and housing, has skyrocketed to $13 billion for fiscal 2003. As a result of the work of highly mobilized lobbying forces, more is spent per patient on AIDS than on any other disease, though it does not even currently rank among the top 15 causes of death in the United States. In one year, 1998, heart disease, the nation's leading cause of death, killed 724,859 Americans only 6.8 percent less than the 774,767 who have contracted AIDS in the last 20 years.² Of those 774,767 total AIDS cases, 462,766 have died. During that same period, 14 million Americans 30 times more have died of heart disease.

Research expenditures at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) demonstrate the uneven use of federal resources. In 1996, NIH spent an average of $1,160 for every heart disease death, $4,700 for every cancer death, and a whopping $43,000 for every AIDS death.³ Even though they get far less research money, that year heart disease killed 24 times more and cancer killed 17 times more than the number of people who died from AIDS in 1996, when AIDS was still the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

There are AIDS prevention success stories, but they aren't coming from American "health" organizations like SFDPH. In the 1990s, the prevalence of AIDS in Uganda hung around the 30 percent mark. Today only 6 percent of Ugandans have AIDS. A recent Africa News article says the Ugandan government attributes this drop to programs like the School Health Education Project, which, instead of sex and flirting seminars, include discussion and debate on the reality of living with AIDS. The article says, "More emphasis [is] put on the fact that HIV/AIDS has no cure and that abstinence from sex [is] the best way to avoid the pandemic."59

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