Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - October 19, 2004
Some slam US President George Bush's conservative policies but others wonder whether his rival, Democrat John Kerry can deliver on extravagant promises to double aid funds to fight the pandemic, reopen the borders to immigrants with Aids and ensure the distribution of cheap, efficient generic drugs.
Nathan Geffen, a senior member of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), said: "The Bush administration has been a disaster for Aids, and we hope to see a change. Spending double the money will already be progress," he said.
TAC successfully lobbied for the distribution of free anti-retrovirals to people with HIV and Aids in South Africa.
In 2003, Bush announced a war chest of $15-billion over five years to help fight HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
Of this amount, nine billion dollars was reserved for 15 countries which together account for more than half of the world's HIV and Aids cases.
Twelve of them -- Botswana, Ethiopia, C|te d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia -- are in Africa.
But the US programme did not begin until February this year, when the first tranche of $350-million was released.
Washington has also been criticised for refusing to increase its contribution to the UN Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and for favouring bilateral projects instead of waging a global war on Aids.
"We welcomed the $15-billion, but actually only a small portion had been voted, and the Bush administration is undermining the Global Fund by underfinancing it," said TAC's Geffen.
In the central African country of Gabon, Lumiere (Light) -- a non-governmental organisation working with Aids orphans -- said it was happy with Bush and cautious about Kerry as he was untested "in the field".
"For the moment I think that Bush has done a lot for Aids, he is the choice for us," said Lumiere president Marguerite Mekontso.
Kerry said in July: "We must be committed to bringing the full weight of American leadership to bear against Africa's deadliest deseases, including Aids," without going into details.
Bush has urged abstinence and opposed condom use.
The international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch said in a 2003 report that the "programmes of abstinence were out of touch with the reality of the Aids epidemic in Africa".
The Rainbow Project (TRP) in the southern African nation of Namibia mirrored the sentiment.
Spokesperson Ian Swartz told AFP: "People die here as President Bush's Aids policy does not show reality, because so much US funding goes into sexual abstinence."
The coordinator of the US anti-Aids programme, Randall Tobias, defended the programme, saying it was inspired by a Ugandan plan promoting abstinence among youth, monogamy for couples and condoms for prostitutes.
In several countries, however, non-governmental organisations refused to speak about the US elections and their impact on the Aids fight, saying the topic was too political.
Zimbabwe, one of the world's worst affected countries with about 3 000 deaths every week, will be unaffected as it does not receive any funding -- probably linked to President Robert Mugabe's diatribes against the "imperialistic" West.
An official from a local NGO, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Zimbabwe was not part of the Presidential Emergency Fund."
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