President Bush signs new law to help the world fight AIDS
Surya B. Prasai
August 03, 2008
On, July 30 , 2008, President George W. Bush signed H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 proving a significant day in the US Senate. This is a new law that triples America's budget for fighting AIDS and other diseases globally after having stalled for some time. The Senate voted 80-16 for the much-acclaimed program that has treated and protected millions in Africa and elsewhere from the scourges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. It is already the most ambitious foreign public health program ever launched by the United States, also viewed as a meaningful and direct U.S. public diplomacy effort of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the State Department proving that America cares for the world in compassionate and humanitarian terms.
UNAIDS, the UN´s global body that helps coordinate the fight against AIDS, states that two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive people live in sub-Saharan Africa, while malaria kills more than one million people every year. According to the World Health Organisation - 90% of the cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. The International Red Cross recently estimated that at least one in 10 people living in countries such as South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique are HIV-positive. In an earlier report this year, the WHO estimated that there were 14.4 million cases of tuberculosis worldwide in 2006.
President Bush has always received laudable praise in the global media for his consistent, courageous and valiant leadership effort in the fight against AIDS. In many small African, Latin American and Asian villages, he is also a popular household name often referred to as if he were a local hero. The Bush leadership also includes active involvement of the first family, First Lady Laura Bush and daughter, Jena.
The new law also requires that one third of AIDS funds be spent promoting abstinence. It also lifts the ban on HIV-infected people from entering the US - a move which has won praise from the rights group, Physicians for Human Rights, and from gay rights campaigners in the US. According to Rachel B. Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality "For 20 years the United States had barred HIV-positive travelers from entering the country even for one day. Today the Senate said loud and clear that AIDS exceptionalism must come to an end." The bipartisan support has demonstrably shown that America´s leaders from both the Republican ad Democratic camp stand unified to fight AIDS globally.
It is also remarkable that the Democratic-led Senate, which often disagrees with the White House, gave President Bush credit for initiating the program. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a chief negotiator in crafting the bill, stated PEPFAR is "the single most significant thing the president has done." According to Senator Biden, "The President deserves our recognition for that." Similarly, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and co-negotiator with Biden, stated that the program "has helped to prevent instability and societal collapse in a number of at-risk countries." He added that it has "facilitated deep partnerships with a new generation of African leaders, and it has improved attitudes toward the United States in Africa and other regions."
According to Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the new package is America's "compact with developing nations across the globe". She stated that the new legislation showed "America's true face of compassion." Earlier in July, the Democratic-controlled US congress had approved the increased funding for a five-year scheme, a significant boost to previous efforts which totaled at around $15 billion. The Senate vote transpired after months of negotiations with Senate conservatives wanting assurances that the new AIDS bill would continue to include programs promoting abstinence and fidelity and would not discriminate against religious groups in allotting funding. The bill passed by the House has approved $50 billion, including $5 billion for malaria, $4 billion for tuberculosis and $41 billion for AIDS. Of the AIDS money, a proportion — $2 billion next year — would go to the international Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Actual spending levels still have to be approved in annual appropriations bills. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., summed it up well when he stated, "This is our most successful foreign policy initiative in my lifetime. This is the most effective thing we have done to build America's prestige, esteem and respect." Coburn, a medical doctor, stated he wanted to prevent money from being diverted to irrelevant development programs, and secured language that more than half the money would go to treating AIDS victims. According to Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance, "The amount per year, about $10 billion, is less than 1 percent of this year's federal budget, and this is a small price to pay for a program that will save millions of lives and foster good will around the world."
On July 30, in a special function to mark this important bill, First Lady Laura Bush stated, "Americans can be proud that our country is leading the efforts against global HIV/AIDS. And I'm proud of my husband's leadership in launching the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and beyond, PEPFAR is saving lives. I've seen these efforts firsthand in 10 of PEPFAR's 15 focus countries. Last summer in Zambia, I visited the Mututa Memorial Center. With support from PEFPAR, Mututa sends caregivers into local homes to nurse patients with AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses." Mrs. Bush mentioned, one of these patients, an HIV-positive boy named Raphael, orphaned at three, was near death when a Mututa caregiver found him and put him on antiretroviral treatment. She stated, "Now at the age of ten, Raphael told me he was first in his class and he was planning on attending the University of Zambia. His caregiver is still with him, and like a father to him now."
President Bush stated on the occasion, "The Act is going to save millions of people, and it honors the memory of two great leaders: Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde. ..This bill embodies the extraordinary compassion of the American people. We are a compassionate nation. And that's what this bill says loud and clear. I want to thank everybody who's helped make this bill possible." President Bush also thanked members of the House and the Senate who had joined in extending their noble support. He expressed gratitude to some of the internationally recognized personalities, such as Ambassador Mark Dybul, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, who has shown much courage and quiet determination on the job and visited many of the PEPFAR program supported countries, Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, who is the U.S. Malaria Coordinator, Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director who has helped coordinate the effort globally from the UN side, and Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Board of the Global Fund, which receives valuable American support annually, besides various congressional and agency staff who worked hard to make the bill a reality.
President Bush stated emphatically, " Just a few years ago, HIV/AIDS raged out of control. An entire continent was caught in the pandemic's merciless grip. In countries like Botswana, AIDS had cut the average life expectancy by 15 years. One newspaper wrote: "The AIDS pandemic is destined to rival the Black Death of the Middle Ages - as a global horror." Well, today the outlook is really different. HIV/AIDS is still one of the world's greatest humanitarian challenges, no question about it, but it is a challenge we're meeting. And a lot of it has to do with PEPFAR."
The U.S. President also gave his views on why PEPFAR was succeeding -- it was the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history. President Bush stated, "It is distinguished from past relief efforts by a few key principles. The Emergency Plan demands specific, measurable targets for progress. It puts local partners in the lead, because they know the needs of their people best. It enlists new partners from the faith community and the private sector." He also mentioned, " So far the results are striking. When we launched the initiative in 2003, only 50,000 people in Sub-Sahara Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatments. Today we support treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in the region -- and tens of thousands more around the world, from Asia to Eastern Europe. PEPFAR has also supported care for nearly 7 million people, including millions of orphans and vulnerable children. To date, PEPFAR has allowed nearly 200,000 children in Africa to be born HIV free. We're also making great strides in the area of prevention, thanks to our embrace of the principles of ABC: Abstinence, Be faithful, and use Condoms. Guided by this philosophy, people are changing their behavior -- and as they do, they're helping to turn the tide against HIV in their countries."
The audience, including the press and diplomatic corps seemed to concur fully with President Bush´s moving words. PEPFAR´s statistics are truly promising. As President Bush stated, there is no way to quantify PEPFAR's greatest achievement: the spread of hope. He felt, "Spreading hope is in our nation's security interests, because the only way our enemies can recruit people to their dark ideology is to exploit despair. And spreading hope is in our moral interests -- because we believe that to whom much is given, much is required."
The new bill also demonstrates the U.S.´s sustained commitment to pursue strong bilateral partnerships and encourage public-private partnerships wherever possible. PEPFAR´s success is also based on host countries coming up with a strategy of defeating HIV with a program that works. The host countries have so far pledged to carry out their strategy with honesty, bring strong accountability measures, and promote joint work with the U.S. to make their fight against AIDS a success. The U.S. has been consistently providing financial, logistic and technical support to many the PEPFAR recipient countries. PEPFAR has so far made significant strides by providing access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs, prevent millions of new HIV infections, providing compassionate care to millions of people affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children, and bolstering efforts to help developing nations combat other devastating diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
UNAIDS, the UN´s global body that helps coordinate the fight against AIDS, states that two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive people live in sub-Saharan Africa, while malaria kills more than one million people every year. According to the World Health Organisation - 90% of the cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. The International Red Cross recently estimated that at least one in 10 people living in countries such as South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique are HIV-positive. In an earlier report this year, the WHO estimated that there were 14.4 million cases of tuberculosis worldwide in 2006.
President Bush has always received laudable praise in the global media for his consistent, courageous and valiant leadership effort in the fight against AIDS. In many small African, Latin American and Asian villages, he is also a popular household name often referred to as if he were a local hero. The Bush leadership also includes active involvement of the first family, First Lady Laura Bush and daughter, Jena.
The new law also requires that one third of AIDS funds be spent promoting abstinence. It also lifts the ban on HIV-infected people from entering the US - a move which has won praise from the rights group, Physicians for Human Rights, and from gay rights campaigners in the US. According to Rachel B. Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality "For 20 years the United States had barred HIV-positive travelers from entering the country even for one day. Today the Senate said loud and clear that AIDS exceptionalism must come to an end." The bipartisan support has demonstrably shown that America´s leaders from both the Republican ad Democratic camp stand unified to fight AIDS globally.
It is also remarkable that the Democratic-led Senate, which often disagrees with the White House, gave President Bush credit for initiating the program. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a chief negotiator in crafting the bill, stated PEPFAR is "the single most significant thing the president has done." According to Senator Biden, "The President deserves our recognition for that." Similarly, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and co-negotiator with Biden, stated that the program "has helped to prevent instability and societal collapse in a number of at-risk countries." He added that it has "facilitated deep partnerships with a new generation of African leaders, and it has improved attitudes toward the United States in Africa and other regions."
According to Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the new package is America's "compact with developing nations across the globe". She stated that the new legislation showed "America's true face of compassion." Earlier in July, the Democratic-controlled US congress had approved the increased funding for a five-year scheme, a significant boost to previous efforts which totaled at around $15 billion. The Senate vote transpired after months of negotiations with Senate conservatives wanting assurances that the new AIDS bill would continue to include programs promoting abstinence and fidelity and would not discriminate against religious groups in allotting funding. The bill passed by the House has approved $50 billion, including $5 billion for malaria, $4 billion for tuberculosis and $41 billion for AIDS. Of the AIDS money, a proportion — $2 billion next year — would go to the international Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Actual spending levels still have to be approved in annual appropriations bills. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., summed it up well when he stated, "This is our most successful foreign policy initiative in my lifetime. This is the most effective thing we have done to build America's prestige, esteem and respect." Coburn, a medical doctor, stated he wanted to prevent money from being diverted to irrelevant development programs, and secured language that more than half the money would go to treating AIDS victims. According to Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance, "The amount per year, about $10 billion, is less than 1 percent of this year's federal budget, and this is a small price to pay for a program that will save millions of lives and foster good will around the world."
On July 30, in a special function to mark this important bill, First Lady Laura Bush stated, "Americans can be proud that our country is leading the efforts against global HIV/AIDS. And I'm proud of my husband's leadership in launching the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and beyond, PEPFAR is saving lives. I've seen these efforts firsthand in 10 of PEPFAR's 15 focus countries. Last summer in Zambia, I visited the Mututa Memorial Center. With support from PEFPAR, Mututa sends caregivers into local homes to nurse patients with AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses." Mrs. Bush mentioned, one of these patients, an HIV-positive boy named Raphael, orphaned at three, was near death when a Mututa caregiver found him and put him on antiretroviral treatment. She stated, "Now at the age of ten, Raphael told me he was first in his class and he was planning on attending the University of Zambia. His caregiver is still with him, and like a father to him now."
President Bush stated on the occasion, "The Act is going to save millions of people, and it honors the memory of two great leaders: Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde. ..This bill embodies the extraordinary compassion of the American people. We are a compassionate nation. And that's what this bill says loud and clear. I want to thank everybody who's helped make this bill possible." President Bush also thanked members of the House and the Senate who had joined in extending their noble support. He expressed gratitude to some of the internationally recognized personalities, such as Ambassador Mark Dybul, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, who has shown much courage and quiet determination on the job and visited many of the PEPFAR program supported countries, Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer, who is the U.S. Malaria Coordinator, Dr. Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director who has helped coordinate the effort globally from the UN side, and Rajat Gupta, Chairman of the Board of the Global Fund, which receives valuable American support annually, besides various congressional and agency staff who worked hard to make the bill a reality.
President Bush stated emphatically, " Just a few years ago, HIV/AIDS raged out of control. An entire continent was caught in the pandemic's merciless grip. In countries like Botswana, AIDS had cut the average life expectancy by 15 years. One newspaper wrote: "The AIDS pandemic is destined to rival the Black Death of the Middle Ages - as a global horror." Well, today the outlook is really different. HIV/AIDS is still one of the world's greatest humanitarian challenges, no question about it, but it is a challenge we're meeting. And a lot of it has to do with PEPFAR."
The U.S. President also gave his views on why PEPFAR was succeeding -- it was the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history. President Bush stated, "It is distinguished from past relief efforts by a few key principles. The Emergency Plan demands specific, measurable targets for progress. It puts local partners in the lead, because they know the needs of their people best. It enlists new partners from the faith community and the private sector." He also mentioned, " So far the results are striking. When we launched the initiative in 2003, only 50,000 people in Sub-Sahara Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatments. Today we support treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in the region -- and tens of thousands more around the world, from Asia to Eastern Europe. PEPFAR has also supported care for nearly 7 million people, including millions of orphans and vulnerable children. To date, PEPFAR has allowed nearly 200,000 children in Africa to be born HIV free. We're also making great strides in the area of prevention, thanks to our embrace of the principles of ABC: Abstinence, Be faithful, and use Condoms. Guided by this philosophy, people are changing their behavior -- and as they do, they're helping to turn the tide against HIV in their countries."
The audience, including the press and diplomatic corps seemed to concur fully with President Bush´s moving words. PEPFAR´s statistics are truly promising. As President Bush stated, there is no way to quantify PEPFAR's greatest achievement: the spread of hope. He felt, "Spreading hope is in our nation's security interests, because the only way our enemies can recruit people to their dark ideology is to exploit despair. And spreading hope is in our moral interests -- because we believe that to whom much is given, much is required."
The new bill also demonstrates the U.S.´s sustained commitment to pursue strong bilateral partnerships and encourage public-private partnerships wherever possible. PEPFAR´s success is also based on host countries coming up with a strategy of defeating HIV with a program that works. The host countries have so far pledged to carry out their strategy with honesty, bring strong accountability measures, and promote joint work with the U.S. to make their fight against AIDS a success. The U.S. has been consistently providing financial, logistic and technical support to many the PEPFAR recipient countries. PEPFAR has so far made significant strides by providing access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs, prevent millions of new HIV infections, providing compassionate care to millions of people affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children, and bolstering efforts to help developing nations combat other devastating diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.