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.
Of course it was, and aggressively so. Someone made a conscious voluntary decision to engage in behavior that spread it. Had they not acted on that voluntary behavior decision, the disease would not have been transmitted.
Here are my printable comments concerning this man, his comments and his organization. ""
There is an unnamed organization out there who claims to care more about humanity than any other. It has a budget in excess of $100 billion dollars per year. Despite this it couldn't find it's way to devote $15 billion to AIDS.
If the US funnels one dime of this money through the United Nations, it will exhibit the depths to which we have sunk as a nation. If we're going to do this, we need to do it with people who are decked out in uniforms that identify them as citizens of the United States, delivering care from the citizens in the United States.
The steps we need to take in the U.S. are the steps Libya took. Demand abstinace for those unmarried and shun sexual promiscuity. They NO longer have an aids problem. DO a search on that country.
"Besides, we don't want Africa to be "helped" by the Islamofascists who will indoctrinate their hate of the USA. We don't want Africa to become another Middle East."
Too late. They're already there busily persecuting CHristians. Look up Sudan. Geesh, have you NO CLUE on what's going on? The stuff you come out with is stunningly dumb.
Agreed. The money spent on drugs does nothing to cure or stop the spread of AIDS. Money spent on screening blood supplies, testing and identifying HIV carriers and educating people to avoid multiple partners will help reduce the spread. Something as simple as identification and permanent quarantine could eradicate the disease in the time it takes for the incurably infected parties to die.
Libya is not a free country. It is an oppressive dictatorship. The U.S. is a free country of free people, who can only be persuaded, not forced to alter their sexual behavior. Libya is the last country I would look to as an example of how to do things in the U.S.
Apparently, you don't know the first thing about how AIDS is spread in Africa. Women and children get it, innocently.
Stopping AIDS in Africa is going to involve a whole lot more than lectures from a bunch of do-gooders.
Emotional rhetoric doesn't convince anyone that this is the responsibility of the American taxpayer. Every single person on this planet right now will be dead within approximately one hundred years, and no amount of wealth redistribution will change that. This is no different than if you applauded government agents confiscating money from someone's checking account just because you think they're going to do something nice with the money.
Weeping and wailing that it isn't fair to single out anal sodomizers and intravenous drug abusers for their behavior choices doesn't constitute a strategy. It might make Fairbanks feel self-rightoues and pious, but it is not a strategy.
I feel so weird agreeing with you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.