USIS Washington File - June 2, 2006

She praised the work that has been done since the U.N. General Assembly's historic 2001 Special Session on HIV/AIDS, but focused on key tasks -- such as education, especially for women and girls, and training community health workers -- needed to defeat the pandemic.

"All people need to know how AIDS is transmitted -- and every country has an obligation to educate its citizens," the first lady said. "This is why every country must also improve literacy, especially for women and girls so they can learn to make wise choices that will keep them healthy and safe."

Another challenge is making sure more people know their HIV status, she said.

"Here in the United States, June 27 is recognized as National HIV Testing Day. The United States will soon propose the designation of an International HIV Testing Day," the first lady said to applause from the General Assembly hall.

Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili discussed the kingdom's "know your status" HIV testing campaign, which is considered the gateway to universal treatment and care access, eliminating discrimination and ending the epidemic in the country.

The prime minister went to a testing site with other officials and the leader of the Catholic Church in Lesotho, he explained. "I encouraged the archbishop to take the test ahead of me because I feared for my results. Even as prime minister, I am only human."

PLAN PROVIDING INTEGRATED PREVENTION, TREATMENT, CARE

The U.S. first lady also urged nations to join the United States in educating community health workers. The United States is dedicating resources from its five-year, $15-billion AIDS relief plan to training health workers in Africa. The goal is to build a sustainable health care infrastructure to deal with HIV/AIDS as well as malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. The emergency plan, announced in 2003, is providing funds to fight the pandemic in 100 countries, with a special focus on the 15 hardest-hit countries.

Direct medical care keeps people in good heath, and education spreads hope, Bush said. "Millions are now learning to live with HIV/AIDS instead of waiting to die from it."

A fact sheet on the emergency plan released by the U.S. Department of State June 2 reports that of the 561,000 people on anti-retroviral treatment, 61 percent are female. The highest number of people receiving treatment through programs supported by PEPFAR is in South Africa, Uganda and Namibia, with 132,000, 75,000 and 58,000 people receiving treatment respectively.

As of March 31, the emergency plan has supported prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission for women in more than 4.5 million pregnancies, anti-retroviral prophylaxis for women during 342,200 pregnancies and prevented an estimated 65,100 infant HIV infections. More than 13.6 million men, women and children have benefited from counseling and testing services, the fact sheet said.

U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON HIV/AIDS

The 2006 high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS was held May 31 to June 2 to assess the international response to the epidemic and chart a course that will help nations approach the goal of universal access to treatment, care, and support for all who need it by 2010; scale up HIV prevention programs; and generate financial and political support. More than 10 heads of state and hundreds of ministers from 120 countries, along with a thousand representatives of civil society and the private sector attended.

The General Assembly is expected to adopt a declaration that goes much farther than its 2001 statement in laying out policies and priorities. U.S. officials have urged that the high-level meeting not focus on empty declarations but actions that will help save lives. (see related article.)

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said nations must give HIV/AIDS the same priority as economic growth and security, and raise the more than $20 billion dollars needed for treatment and care in 2008 and each year thereafter.

UNAIDS released a five-year assessment May 30 of progress in fighting AIDS. The report entitled 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic: A UNAIDS 10th Anniversary Special Edition, shows that progress has been made in some areas, including increases in funding and access to treatment, and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years. (see related article.)

To turn the tide against the epidemic, Secretary-General Kofi Annan added, "requires every president and prime minister, every parliamentarian and politician to decide and declare that 'AIDS stops with me. AIDS stops with me.'"

A transcript of Laura Bush's remarks is available on the White House Web site.

A June 2 fact sheet on the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is available on the State Department Web site.

For more information on U.S. policies and programs, see HIV/AIDS.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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