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.
Please. You follow certain posters from thread to thread demeaning them, but never substantively addressing their points. I've noticed it with more than one poster.
I'm not so much against Bush using an ineffective political strategy against the Democrats, although I think that black Americans will continue to vote 90% Democrat pretty much until the sun burns out.
What stuns me is the number of people who don't understand that "AIDS" is an industry. It's like TV watchers who don't realize that Joe Millionaire and The Bachelorette are as scripted as WWF wrestling. This is 2003. The "epidemic" that Oprah and Donna Shalala said was going to devastate America hasn't happened and isn't going to happen. Since nobody who isn't leading a drug-abusing fast-lane lifestyle is sick, most Americans have tuned out. The fund-raising efforts of the AIDS lobby have hence turned to Africa.
It's hard to know what can change the minds of people at this late date, but I'm going to suggest a few sources. In AIDS in Africa: In Search of the Truth the South African writer Rian Malan, commissioned by the homosexual owner of Rolling Stone, travels to South Africa to research AIDS. He learns that there has been no change in the death rate or in the statistical profile of the recently deceased, and comes to doubt the entire AIDS construct.
In Out of Africa the New York science journalist Celia Farber travels to Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Kenya. The closer she tries to get to African AIDS, the less of it there seems to be.
In Inventing an Epidemic: The Traditional Diseases of Africa are Called AIDS from the April 2000 American Spectator, Tom Bethell discusses the health problems of Africa and the meaningless nature of HIV testing. There's lots more where those came from, but I think those three realitvely short and non-technical pieces are a good start for anyone who wants to understand this issue better.
Primary among them -- if the vector of AIDS/Hep-C infection of the ENTIRE population is studied, including the 90% of U.S. hemophiliacs infected in the 80's:
No sale there. Government has proven over time that its ability to educate is horrifying at best. Education has turned into indoctrination of values that are relativistic and irresponsible; even when its intentions are good. At this present time I cant see any government sponsored "education" program being unscathed by the PC police force in Washington/Ithaca(The City of Evil Inc.)/Bezerkly. You don't really think that the this "education" would include any form of abstinence do you? or help to make these people self-sufficient? or basic morality as to how a functional family should operate/exist? I highly highly doubt it...and I have good reason to. Government should not be envolved in these kind of things...charity and the church should.
Shhhhh... That's a secret the media has kept quiet for years. If this ever got out, public sympathy for AIDS infected people would evaporate.
Now repeat after me; “They are arbitrary victims of this dreaded disease.” “They are arbitrary victims of this dreaded disease.” “They are arbitrary victims of this dreaded disease.” That’s it, keep going.
I don't want to speak for him, but I'm really thinking Chad is not your "boy".
Anyone who knows Chad at all - and that apparently does not include you - knows he is no liberal.
And don't even try to deny that there are urinating contests here day in and day out to see who is the most right-wing, beer-guzzling, wife-beater-shirt-wearing, politically incorrect "conservative" in this forum.
You're one of the prettiest contestants.
Bush as President:
To: Chad Fairbanks
I agree with you! Believe that Senator Bill Frist, M.D., who has gone to Africa and has seen how devastating this disease is to so many people that have gotten AIDs in Africa through no fault of their own. This epidemic could go around the world and strike more than the gay community. 20 posted on 01/29/2003 8:10 AM PST by PhiKapMom (Bush/Cheney 2004)
Clinton as President:
Clinton Wants $175 Million for AIDS Programs "Can someone tell me how putting more money into prevention is going to help? It is actually quite simple -- safe sex and don't share needles. Probably the most basic answer is "Just Say NO! If someone doesn't know that by now after all the warnings during the last ten years then they are a moron! Is this State of the Union going to be the big give-away? Every day I read about another give-away. Only when it comes to the Defense Department is it a take-away." 2 Posted on 01/17/2000 19:44:57 PST by PhiKapMom
Uh, LOL! This is a keeper. That's brutal Bill.......
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