Miami Herald - January 30, 2003
Nancy San Martin*

The monetary assistance, pending approval from Congress, is part of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief announced Tuesday night during the State of the Union Address.

Senior administration officials said Wednesday that the funding will begin to flow at the end of 2004 with $2 billion and "ramp up" over the following four years. The new initiative would nearly triple the amount of U.S. money now spent on international AIDS assistance, officials said.

"Our biggest problem is lack of funds," said Dr. Peter Mugyenyi of Uganda, who serves on the president's initiative on HIV/AIDS. "I'm delighted that this is beginning to be addressed by the generous offer."

NEARLY 20 MILLION

Haiti and Guyana in the Caribbean, along with 12 African countries, account for nearly 20 million HIV-infected men, women and children.

Together, the nations account for almost 70 percent of HIV infections in all of Africa and the Caribbean. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

The $15 billion plan includes $10 billion in "new money" that will be included in the federal budget to be presented to Congress. The remaining $5 billion will be allocated from the Health and Human Services and the USAID budgets, officials said.

The administration now spends about $1.5 billion a year on the AIDS struggle at home and abroad and contributes $500 million to the Global Fund, an organization based in Geneva that provides grants to governments and nongovernmental organizations in countries where disease is rampant.

Details on how the money would be distributed were unclear Wednesday, and some criticism emerged because only about one-tenth of the funds would go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an initiative supported by activists worldwide.

'IT'S OUTRAGEOUS'

"It's outrageous that the president gives such short shrift to the Global fund, which is fast running out of resources," Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance in Washington, said in a written statement.

Still, the funding gesture introduced by Bush received kudos from many advocates for people with AIDS.

"It's wonderful and historic news," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

"It's a major breakthrough. There's a lot of work to be done in terms of the specifics, but we're extremely pleased."

In his address, Bush likened the effort to combat AIDS with the war against terrorism.

"This nation can lead the world in sparing innocent people from a plague of nature. And this nation is leading the world in confronting and defeating the man-made evil of international terrorism," Bush said.

The plan for AIDS relief is intended to prevent seven million new AIDS infections, treat at least two million people with life-extending drugs and provide care for 10 million HIV-infected people and AIDS orphans.

Since AIDS was detected two decades ago, about 20 million people have died of it.

An estimated 40 million are currently infected by AIDS or HIV, and the World Health Organization projects another 45 million will contract the disease by the end of this decade.

Countries in southern Africa are the hardest hit. An estimated 30 million people on the continent are infected with HIV.

Outside sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti has the highest rate of AIDS/HIV infection.

In addition to Haiti and Guyana, the other countries that will benefit from the new funding include Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

* nsanmartin@herald.com
030130
MH030104

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