Miami Herald - Thursday, June 20, 2002
Andrea Robinson, arobinson@herald.com

The five-year, $500 million package, designed to help "save children from disease and death," is aimed mostly at purchasing drugs that would block the transmission of AIDS to unborn children.

The White House estimates the plan could save about 146,000 newborns a year.

"Medical science gives us the power to save these young lives," said Bush, speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House. "Conscience demands we do so."

Saying that AIDS has already killed 20 million people worldwide and could kill 40 million more, the president announced the funding plan a week before he is to go to Canada for a world summit on Africa.

Bush also is expected to propose today to double spending on a U.S. initiative for education in Africa to $200 million over five years and to announce plans to travel to the continent next year, senior administration officials said.

White House officials said Bush's AIDS proposal is meant to soften criticism that the United States doesn't spend enough on global initiatives.

The announcement was cheered by AIDS activists in South Florida's large Caribbean community, which seeks to step up its fundraising and outreach efforts in the region.

But it did little to quash the outcry of national AIDS advocacy groups, which branded the proposal as "a sham" and "grossly underfinanced." They say the Bush plan doesn't go far enough because the plan shortchanges prevention and care for mothers and other family members -- which could leave children healthy but orphaned.

The U.S. Agency for International Development estimated about 800,000 infants are infected with HIV each year. The White House said the majority of those births are in Africa and the Caribbean.

In Haiti, 6 percent of the adult population, ages 15 to 49, has HIV. In Guyana, the rate is 3 percent. By comparison, the rate is .7 percent among adults in the United States.

Paul DeLay, director of the HIV/AIDS office at the Agency for International Development, said that in Haiti about 8,000 pregnant women are newly diagnosed with the condition each year.

"This will let us focus on identifying them," DeLay said.

The African nations that Bush targeted are Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. In 2003, the program will expand to Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.

About $300 million would be allocated over the next five years. DeLay said the other $200 million was recently approved by Congress and could be sent soon.

The proposal brought sharp criticism from several national AIDS activist groups, including Act Up, which said the administration is ignoring people who already have AIDS.

Act Up, based in New York, and others want the United States to contribute more to the U.N.-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The United States has pledged $500 million to that fund.

Robert Dabney, spokesman with the National Minority AIDS Council in Washington, said the allocation fell short in other ways. "If we only target money [on mother-to-child transmission] we save the child but we lose the mother," Dabney said. "There will be fewer children dying, but there will be more orphans."

DeLay said the program does offer some support for families where at least one person is infected.

"It's more than drugs," he said. "This will be offered to the husband, and if the child becomes infected, he or she may need to be treated. We would link them up with faith-based groups in their countries for support services."

He pointed out that to identify at-risk pregnant women, larger numbers of women would be screened and tested. In addition to medication, those who are positive would get tips on safe breast-feeding.

Claudette Hayles, a Lauderdale Lakes businesswoman who raises money to help people with AIDS in the Caribbean, said any U.S. help is greatly needed.

"It really affects our people more than anyone else," she said. "We don't talk about it, and that's the major reason it's so prevalent in the Caribbean. No one wants to admit it."

This report was supplemented with material from Herald wire services.
020620
MH020604

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. 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, 2002. 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. .