Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Los Angeles Times - December 13, 2003
With the nation's budget stretched thin to pay for the war in Iraq and massive tax cuts, there's not much hope that Washington will be able to fund the entire $2.4 billion.
However, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) -- who has called the spread of AIDS in poor nations "the greatest moral and humanitarian challenge of really the last 100 years" -- should at least press the administration to make better use of whatever funding scraps it thinks it can afford to throw.
The biggest impediment is the administration's insistence that most new aid flow not to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria -- the private-public partnership spearheaded by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- but rather to the Millennium Challenge Account, its own program to, as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell put it this week, "draw whole nations into an expanding circle of opportunity and enterprise."
The Bush administration wants the lion's share of next year's humanitarian aid increases to go to the Millennium Challenge Account, and it has proposed a $150-million cut in U.S. spending on the Global Fund.
Frist and other congressional leaders should press the administration to distribute more aid through the Global Fund. Unlike the untested Millennium Challenge, the Global Fund, according to neutral auditors, has in the last year proved its ability to effectively finance projects to curb AIDS and other infectious diseases.
In principle, the Bush administration's notion of using the Millennium Challenge to fight AIDS is laudable. In practice, however, its competition with the already-established Global Fund is sowing needless division in the humanitarian community and delaying the arrival of help that is needed now.
031213
LT031205
Copyright © 2003 - Los Angeles Times. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Los Angeles Times, Permissions, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. http://www.latimes.com.
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted funding from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Pacific Life Foundation and donations from users like you.
Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2003. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.
Copyright ©1980, 2003. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .