UN official lauds Bush’s ‘critical leadership’ in signing $15 billion AIDS bill

The head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has lauded President George W. Bush of the United States for demonstrating “critical leadership” in the fight against AIDS through his signing into law a $15 billion bill to prevent and treat the scourge in Africa and the Caribbean.

“The US has recognized that AIDS is a significant threat to global development and stability, and is backing up that understanding with a commitment to substantial new resources,” Peter Piot said yesterday in Washington, D.C., on the signing of the Global AIDS Act by President Bush.

The programme is designed to offer a comprehensive prevention and care package that could prevent 7 million new infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide care for millions more suffering from AIDS, including children orphaned by the disease.

“Resources carefully spent on scientifically proven interventions can dramatically reduce the toll of HIV/AIDS, even where the epidemic is most severe,” Dr. Piot stated. “For the first time there is a concerted global effort to close the treatment gap that denies life-saving HIV medicines to 95 per cent of the people living with AIDS around the world. The legislation signed today gives that effort a vital boost.”

Dr. Piot noted, however, that while spending on HIV/AIDS in developing countries has doubled over the past three years, a major gap remains between the need and the resources available to address it. Even with the deployment of the projected new US funds, spending will still be barely one-half of what is required for a baseline level prevention and treatment response by 2005.

“With today's bill signing, the world moves an important step closer to supporting a response that begins to match the magnitude of the challenge. But there is still a long way to go,” he said. “AIDS will only be defeated when responsibility for addressing it is fully shared – with every nation working to meet the financial and leadership challenges presented by this global epidemic.”

The countries slated to receive assistance are Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.