Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Newsday - June 14, 2001
Laurie Garrett, Staff Writer
The International Infectious Diseases Control Act calls for $200 million for next year and another $500 million for 2003, to be placed in a global trust fund in the World Bank.
The bill comes in response to a plea from United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan last month for a global fund of $7 billion to $10 billion annually for treatment and prevention of the three diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Senate bill, introduced by Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), addresses a continuing debate regarding how to allocate funding for prevention or treatment. "Prevention of new infections is the key," the bill states, "although treatment and care for those infected by HIV/AIDS is an increasingly critical component of the global response."
In recent weeks the Bush administration has underscored its concern that most of the global fund be spent on efforts to prevent the spread of HIV, particularly through programs promoting abstinence. Treatment advocates have argued that access to medicines is a human right.
Last week that debate intensified when Andrew Natsios, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said distribution of anti-HIV drugs in Africa would be impossible. In remarks reported in The Boston Globe, Natsios said Africans "don't know what Western time is," and that "many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives. And if you say, one o'clock in the afternoon, they do not know what you are talking about." The treatment regimen requires several pills each day, to be taken at specific intervals.
Last week Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) introduced legislation supporting the global fund and increasing the HIV budget of USAID. The bill doesn't specify a level of U.S. dollars for the global fund, leaving authorization open to the White House, up to a ceiling of 25 percent of all funds donated by other governments. It would increase HIV-designated international funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID from $300 million this year to $519 million in 2002, $50 million of which would be earmarked for treatment programs.
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