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U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRESS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov/
(202) 712-43202003-046
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2003Contact: USAID Press Office
Washington, DC - Today, President Bush signed the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 into law. The President renews the United States commitment to provide $15 billion over the next 5 years to the most HIV/AIDs afflicted countries in Africa and the Caribbean: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. This is the largest, single up front commitment in history for an international public health initiative involving a specific disease. The President stated that, "The suffering in Africa is great. The suffering in the Caribbean is great. The United States of America has the power and we have the moral duty to help. And I'm proud that our blessed and generous nation is fulfilling that duty."
The United States will continue to work throughout the world to combat HIV/AIDS, this emergency plan will focus a significant amount of new resources on 14 countries, which are also the focus of the President's previously announced Mother-and-Child HIV Prevention Initiative. The target countries have among the highest prevalence of HIV infection and account for nearly 20 million HIV-infected men, women and children--almost 70 percent of the total in all of Africa and the Caribbean.
The President believes the global community can--and must--do more to halt the advance of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and that the United States should lead the world by example. The President remarked,"Time is not on our side. Every day of delay means 8,000 more AIDS deaths in Africa and 14,000 more infections -- every day, 14,000 more people will be infected. I'll urge our European partners and Japan and Canada to join this great mission of rescue, to match their good intentions with real resources."
This comprehensive program has the potential in this decade to prevent 7 million new HIV infections, provide life-extending drugs to at least 2 million infected people, give humane care to 10 million HIV sufferers and AIDS orphans. This is a massive undertaking, and the dedicated men and women of the United States government are eager to get started.
To coordinate this effort, the president will nominate a global AIDS coordinator who will closely with the Departments of State and Health and Human Services, as well as with USAID and the Centers for Disease Control, to direct the efforts in the worldwide fight against AIDS. Dr. Anne Peterson, Assistant Administrator for USAID's Bureau for Global Health, said that "While we often hear of the hopelessness of HIV/AIDs, today there are many signs that give us hope of winning the war against this deadly disease."
USAID is the world's leader in providing funding to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Since 1986, it has provided more than $2.3 billion for prevention, care and treatment programs in over 50 countries around the world. More information about USAID's HIV/AIDS programs is available at www.usaid.gov.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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