Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 15, 2004
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
Randall Tobias, the US Global Aids Coordinator, said Washington would continue to provide financial support through the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) and urged the cooperation of governments and community groups in developing countries to help HIV/Aids patients in need of anti-retroviral treatment.
"Pepfar is an effective mechanism to ensure that small and effective organisations can improve their work and get money fast in order to address urgent needs within communities," he said at the 15th International Aids Conference.
The project is designed to help individual nations facing different problems concerning Aids, which are too complex to solve by contributing funds solely through the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an independent financing mechanism.
"Preventing Aids is not a multiple choice test. There is no one right answer or one method to simply prevent spread of the epidemic," he said.
Mr Tobias said that the US programme had proven the success of curbing virus infections among intravenous drug users, women and children in partnership with nations such as Ethiopia, Uganda and Vietnam and that this would make the Bush administration continue integrating it to encourage bold leadership of targeted governments, leaders and aid workers in each community in order to help people who are living with HIV/Aids.
The US government has promised to contribute $15 billion for a five-year period to the project to provide care and treatment for up to 10 million people infected and affected by the virus, including orphans and vulnerable children in 15 developing countries and split the money with the Global Fund for training and education promotion to effectively combat the disease and remove the stigma in those countries, he said.
Critics have cried foul that with its own programmes, the US can handpick countries whose policy is in line with Washington's to receive its money.
Mr Tobias was disrupted by a group of community members and activists throughout his speech, calling him a liar and demanding the Bush administration immediately provide adequate funding for treatment of people living with HIV/Aids through the Global Fund instead.
Paul Davis of US-based group Health Global Action Project said Pepfar was a threat and put insurmountable obstacles for developing countries to step up treatment for Aids sufferers.
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