Posted on 01/29/2003 7:57:13 AM PST by TLBSHOW
Bush Asks for $15 Billion to Fight AIDS in Africa
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, under fire from AIDS groups for what they call his neglect of the epidemic, asked Congress Tuesday to triple AIDS spending in Africa and Haiti to $15 billion over five years.
The announcement, made in his annual State of the Union Address, took AIDS campaigners by surprise, but they quickly both welcomed the plan and expressed skepticism about it.
"I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean," Bush said.
"This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by AIDS," Bush added.
On its Internet web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the White House said the plan would target Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
It said the plan calls for the United States to work with private groups and governments to "put in place a comprehensive plan for diagnosing, preventing and treating AIDS."
Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, welcomed what he called "the first dramatic signal from the U.S. administration that it is now ready to confront the pandemic and to save or prolong millions of lives."
"It opens the floodgates of hope. Most importantly, it issues a challenge to every other member of the G7 to follow suit," he said in South Africa after a tour of the region.
The Physicians for Human Rights, which campaigns on a range of issues from land mines to HIV, last week urged Bush to increase global AIDS spending to $3.5 billion a year.
"This is totally unexpected," John Heffernan, a spokesman for the group, said in a telephone interview. "We applaud it. It really is an extraordinary commitment that clearly shows that the United States is serious about combating AIDS."
The Global AIDS Alliance welcomed the news but worried that the Bush administration could be competing with existing AIDS funds, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The United States has been accused of not putting its fair share into the Fund.
"In the (White House) fact sheet it said only $1 billion of the 10 billion in new money will go to the Global Fund," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We are very concerned that will leave the fund vastly underfunded and undermine its success."
A SLOW START?
Zeitz also said it looked like the program would start out slowly, with just $2 billion allocated for next year.
The International Association for Physicians in AIDS Care said it would closely watch what would be done with the money, if Congress approved it. "The devil is in the details," said Scott Wolfe, a spokesman for the group. But he also strongly welcomed the move, adding, "We call on other global leaders to step up and demonstrate similar commitments."
More than 36 million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS -- 25 million in Africa alone. The United Nations predicts AIDS will kill 70 million people in the next 20 years unless rich nations step up efforts.
Bush noted this. "There are whole countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult population carries the infection," he said. "More than 4 million require immediate drug treatment. Yet across that continent, only 50,000 AIDS victims -- only 50,000 -- are receiving the medicine they need."
There is no cure for AIDS but a cocktail of expensive drugs known as anti-retrovirals can keep disease at bay. Campaigners have been angered that such drugs are available in rich nations but not to the countries hardest hit by the epidemic.
"AIDS can be prevented," Bush said. "Anti-retroviral drugs can extend life for many years. And the cost of those drugs has dropped from $12,000 a year to under $300 a year, which places a tremendous possibility within our grasp."
The new Senate majority leader, Tennessee Republican Bill Frist, nodded and smiled as Bush spoke. Frist, a medical doctor, does frequent volunteer work in Africa.
"It's unprecedented. It is huge. And of everything he said tonight, it has the capacity to save more lives in this country I would say, but also globally, than anything else said," Frist told CNN.
My libertarian streak is uncomfortable with this. My compassionate one is for it. My practical side had the thought that it's one thing to recruit suicide terrorists from among healthy people... It would be easier to get someone who already has death hanging over their head (and is in early enough of a stage that they're not particularly weakened).
Just wanted to see that repeated because that's what Freepers need to do on here from time to time!
1) Killing or imprisoning bad people or enemy foreigners( and nessacary support spending for this like buying weapons etc), as well as securing sertain essential things from them.
2) Building infrastructure thats not easily privatizable
3) Maintaining the court system
and thats about it. Buying aids drugs for people who will just hate us for it anyway doesn't qualify. No Republican should be for this kind of spending, I'd understand on a cynical level if this was going to buy any votes from the Dems but it ain't. Its just a stupid waste of money.
Sad, but true. Aside from the money, overuse of these drugs in an evironment where they will not be reliably taken, and where HIV engendering sexual practices are rampant ensures that they will lose their effectiveness all the more quickly. So, its not just money, it is the devaluation of the medicines.
Now, combine this with profit disincentives for medical companies, and you have a surefire recipe for a declining quality of available medicines.
You're a selfish child.
That's why the Founding Fathers required a President to be at least 35.
So he'd have a modicum of maturity.
Why can't Africa educate it's own people and fight this? I agree, this disease is completely preventable. Why are they taking my money for this?
Although it's culturally accepted in Africa to have multiple partners, it is still aquired from having sex. If they don't address that fact and change the cultural practices, they'll just be setting up another black hole that swallows money.
If they put this guy in charge of the whole shebang - just give him a sack of cash & say "Do in the rest of the continent what you did in Uganda" - he might solve the problem once and for all. If he can get A WHOLE COUNTRY to practice responsible sexual behavior, he's a genius.
You called the poster this name, but you failed to address his post. And he is absolutley correct.
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