U.S. Contributions in Combating the HIV/AIDS Crisis

What can we do about the AIDS crisis?  Twenty five years after the world experienced its first cases, HIV/AIDS threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world -- the most vulnerable being those who live in developing countries. The global challenge requires a global commitment.  

Last year at the CHOGM meeting in Malta, Commonwealth leaders reaffirmed their efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Two-thirds of people infected with HIV/AIDS live in Commonwealth nations.

The United States government is taking aggressive efforts in the fight.  Nearly three years ago, President Bush launched a five-year, $15 billion effort -- the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- the largest international initiative ever by one nation to combat a single disease. 

In Namibia, U.S. Government funds helped a Lutheran Hospital build a new HIV-treatment center and hire 12 doctors, nurses, and other staff. This clinic has been able to put 1,475 people on treatment in less than a year. In Botswana, funds have allowed two clinics to launch a peer counseling program for mothers, which provides emotional support and helps prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. And in Uganda, the U.S. Government support helped Dr. Peter Mugyenyi expand from one site serving AIDS patients to 25 sites in a single year. Today, Dr. Mugyenyi's program has 35 sites - many of them in remote rural areas - that provide therapy to 35,000 Ugandans.

After two years, the President's Emergency Plan has already supported life-saving treatments for approximately 400,000 Sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV/AIDS. Before, only 50,000 of the more than four million people in sub-Saharan Africa needing immediate AIDS treatment were getting medicine.

The Emergency Plan includes both bilateral programs and support for multilateral efforts, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The United States is focusing on the 15 hardest-hit nations in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean -- nations that together account for over half of the world’s infected people. In these nations, the U.S. five-year goals are to prevent seven million new infections, treat two million individuals who are living with AIDS, and care for ten million people who are afflicted with and affected by the disease, including orphaned children.

The U.S. works with a vast number of partners and organizations that provide much of the health care in the developing world, including faith-based and community organizations.  The United States will extend over $200 million in grants to such organizations through 2008.  These partner organizations provide treatment and prevention efforts that emphasize abstinence, faithfulness in marriage, and the correct use of condoms.  This strategy - pioneered by Africans - has proven its effectiveness, and America stands behind this approach to prevention.

For the AIDS crisis to end, a continued international commitment to tackling the disease is essential.  All who have the power to ease suffering and to save lives also have a moral responsibility to do so.  The United States will continue its strong efforts to combat this disease.