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On Sodomite World AIDS Day, Bush the Condom King Touts His Relief Program

G.W. BUSH THE CONDOM KING

Enlists Faith-Based Groups to Battle AIDS With Condoms

President Bush said yesterday that U.S. support is helping to bring AIDS prevention and treatment to hundreds of thousands around the globe, as he marked World AIDS Day before an assemblage of top officials and a somewhat jet-lagged South African family flown in for the occasion.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which aims to spend $15 billion over five years, is helping to support 400,000 people on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy. Nearly all are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 12 of the plan's 15 "focus countries" are located. Three years ago, 50,000 Africans were receiving treatment.

"I believe America has a unique ability, and a special calling, to fight this disease," Bush said in a hall at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Bush's speech, attended by five Cabinet secretaries and many ambassadors from African nations, came as the world is about to miss by a wide margin the goal of providing AIDS drugs to 3 million people from low-income countries by the end of 2005. The World Health Organization set that "3 by 5" target in 2003.

As of June, 970,000 people in low- and middle-income countries were on AIDS drugs, out of 6.5 million who urgently need them, according to WHO. In all, 40.3 million people are living with HIV infection worldwide. Slightly fewer than 5 million people became infected this year, and 3.1 million died.

The Bush program spent $2.4 billion in 2004, its first year, and is spending $2.8 billion this year. The president has requested $3.2 billion for 2006.

The other large source of money for AIDS treatment in the developing world is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which was founded in 2001 and is based in Geneva. It receives donations from countries and foundations, and awards grants to programs that meet specific criteria and performance standards.

The fund reported yesterday that it is supporting AIDS treatment for 384,000 people -- 60,000 more than six months ago, and nearly triple the number of a year ago.

Bush's program provides most of its funding through "bilateral" relationships with the 15 countries, an arrangement that is designed to give it greater oversight and control and that yields better publicity than if it worked primarily through the global fund. Even so, the United States is the biggest single contributor to the fund. It provided $600 million from 2001 to 2003 and has pledged an additional $1 billion. That $1 billion is part of the $15 billion cost of Bush's program. In the past two years, Congress has increased the appropriation above the administration's request.

Rapidly enrolling patients in treatment is a priority for both PEPFAR and the fund. At a meeting of the Group of Eight countries in July, Bush agreed with leaders of the other highly industrialized nations to work toward "universal access to treatment" for the world's AIDS patients by 2010 -- an even taller order than the 3 by 5 target or PEPFAR's goals.

David Bryden, a spokesman for the Global AIDS Alliance, said PEPFAR's contribution "is an important step, but we still have a long way to go before we reach universal access. . . . The U.S. cannot reach that goal alone. That's why the president will have to increase U.S. support for the global fund."

Bush's comments drew an immediate response from Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who said the president had not provided all of the money he pledged in 2003.

"The Bush White House has talked a big game on fighting AIDS, but has consistently shortchanged the president's initiatives and stood in the way of important global efforts to curb this disease," Dean said.

On the stage behind the president at the AIDS event were three recipients of U.S.-supported treatment, Thandazile Darby, 35, and her two children, Lewis, 4, and Emily, 5, of Durban. All are HIV-positive, as was Darby's husband and the children's father, who died in 2002. The three are receiving antiretroviral drugs provided through a program supported by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which is funded in part by the administration's program.

While the president spoke, Emily, wearing a pink blouse, drew up her legs and lay down on her chair, her head on her mother's thigh. Lewis leaned his head back and nestled against Helga Holst, medical director of Durban's McCord Hospital, where the two children and 150 others are treated.

"It's the effect of a long speech," Bush said to laughter as he turned and introduced the family. "I want to thank you for joining us today, and I want to thank you for your strong example of courage."

Also attending was Peter Mugyenyi, 56, a physician from Kampala, Uganda, who began treating AIDS patients with triple antiretroviral therapy in 1996, the year that approach took off in the United States, where it has dramatically reduced AIDS deaths and restored thousands of people to near-normal health.

Mugyenyi was the first to use the multidrug regimen in Uganda, and one of the first in the region. He said there are now about 67,000 Ugandans on it, with PEPFAR helping to pay for about a third.

Backstage after the speech, Darby said she and her children have had dramatic responses to the drugs, which have not proved as onerous to take as she expected. In a 10-minute chat with the president and Laura Bush, she said she "thanked him for supporting us."

The Bushes invited the family to the lighting of the White House Christmas tree last night. They have tickets to see the baby panda at the National Zoo this morning and will fly home tonight.

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nt/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120100728.html

Bush Enlists Faith-Based Groups to Battle AIDS With Condoms

President George W. Bush said he's tapping U.S. religious groups to help people in the developing world who are infected with HIV/AIDS get treatment.

``HIVAIDS is a global health crisis'' that threatens whole societies, Bush said during a White House speech marking World AIDS Day. ``This danger will be overcome.''

The Bush administration plans to spend $3.2 billion to fight HIV/AIDS in 2006, up from $2.6 billion this year, as part of a five-year, $15 billion pledge made in 2003 to battle the disease in 15 of the most heavily affected countries.

Bush, in a ceremony, announced a New Partners Initiative, which he said will solicit help from organizations affiliated with churches and other faith-based groups. They would offer health care, through competitive government grants, to the developing world and make sure they have access to American assistance. ``We will reach more people more effectively and save more lives,'' he said.

At the core of the U.S. contribution to fighting AIDS globally is a program called A-B-C, which stresses abstinence, being faithful in marriage and using condoms correctly, Bush said. ``American stands behind the ABC approach,'' he said.

An estimated 40.3 million people around the world are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and 90 percent of those people live in developing countries, according to UNAIDS, an alliance of six United Nations agencies.

Destructive Epidemic

AIDS killed 3.1 million people last year, most of them in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization. More than 25 million people have died worldwide since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations said in July they want to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 to stem the spread of the disease.

The goal of Bush's five-year program is to support prevention of AIDs for 7 million people globally, treatment for 2 million and care for 10 million, a White House fact sheet said. So far, 400,000 sub-Saharan Africans are receiving treatment.

A Washington-based advocacy group call Africa Action said medical treatment isn't being delivered quickly or broadly enough to save millions of lives in Africa.

`Life and Death'

``In Africa, where more than 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, access to anti-retroviral treatment is a matter of life and death,'' Africa Action's Executive Director Salih Booker said in an e-mailed statement. High drug costs ``continue to keep life-saving treatment out of reach for those most affected by HIV/AIDS,'' she said.

The director of the UN's AIDS program marked World AIDS Day today by urging the international community to do all it can to fight the deadly disease. Peter Piot, the executive director of the program, said the latest global figures show signs of hope, with adult infection rates decreasing in a few nations, notably Kenya and Zimbabwe and some Caribbean countries.

Still, the number of people living with AIDS worldwide has reached its highest level ever. Piot said comprehensive prevention, treatment and care programs need to be increased on a massive scale to help reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The UN has launched a five-year campaign under the theme ``Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise'' to encourage governments to meet their commitments to fight the disease.

Bush said Africa has been particularly hard hit by the disease. He cited the progress made in Kenya and Uganda in stemming new infections. Uganda's infection rate, for example, has fallen to 7 percent from 18 percent in the early 1990s, according to the UN.

Still, in South Africa, 20 percent of people aged between 15 and 49 carry HIV, from 1 percent in 1990, UN figures show. The country has 5.2 million HIV positive people, more than any other nation and less that 15 percent of South Africans with AIDS are getting treatment, the UN says.


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The following is a transcript of remarks by President Bush and Mrs. Bush on sodomite World AIDS Day

"We're working with our partners to provide treatment because the lives of people already infected should never be written off, because the best way to help a child in need is to help their parents live, and because people who know they can be treated are more likely to seek testing. We're working with our partners to expand prevention efforts that emphasize abstinence, being faithful in marriage, and using condoms correctly." --PRNewswire

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Posted by Editor at December 6, 2005 09:22 AM