[…] Recognizing that HIV/AIDS is a global health crisis requiring immediate action, President George W. Bush and a bipartisan Congress launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the largest public health initiative ever undertaken against a single disease. PEPFAR supports concerned and active citizens in nations affected by HIV/AIDS as they lead their own fight against HIV/AIDS.

[…] I want to start by thanking Ambassador Mark Dybul, who is the Global AIDS Coordinator. His job is to make sure that America's great compassion is effective and widespread; that the goals we have set are met. And I -- Mr. Ambassador, you're doing a fine job and I want to thank you very much for serving. I also want to thank Pastor Dennis Yocum, the pastor of this church. Dennis, I want to thank you for your hospitality -- it's not easy to host the President and all those who follow the President.

[…] Today, President and Mrs. Bush will mark World AIDS Day 2007 by participating in a faith-based roundtable discussion at Calvary United Methodist Church in Mount Airy, Maryland. This World AIDS Day, the U.S. Government is highlighting the important role of faith- and community-based organizations in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The President and Mrs. Bush will discuss the global response to HIV/AIDS with U.S.

[…] On the eve of World AIDS Day, President Bush renewed his pledge to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. “The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated,” he said November 30, through international cooperative efforts such as his President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

[…] With 650 employees across the African continent and another 60,000 employed by independent bottling companies licensed to use its trademark, Coca-Cola has long been committed to educating its workers about HIV/AIDS. But, according to David Brown, director of employee relations for the Atlanta soft drink company, stigma keeps some HIV-infected employees from coming forward to accept free anti-retroviral treatment or counseling. “This is not a Coca-Cola issue only,” he said, “but an Africa-wide issue.” In fact, he said, experts are unlikely to report progress on erasing that stigma.

[…] ...PEPFAR is "connecting the dots of international development" by increasingly linking its programs with other development initiatives that are having a real impact in countries and communities. These include the President’s Malaria Initiative, to increase the impact on public health and reach more at-risk populations; the African Education Initiative, to improve educational opportunities for Africa’s children; U.S.-supported food aid programs, to bolster nutrition among those with AIDS; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, to promote sustainable economic growth.

[…] Thanks to the Bush administration’s fight against HIV-AIDS worldwide, people who thought they were dying of the disease are finding they have a second chance at life. First lady Laura Bush, speaking at the National Press Club July 25, marveled at “the Lazarus effect” she saw during her most recent trip to Africa. (Lazarus, according to a story in the Christian Bible, after having been dead and entombed for several days, was raised to life by Jesus Christ.)

[…] An international group of scientists contributed to a study that has found genetic reasons for the natural resistance of a small percentage of the population to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The researchers, led by David Goldstein, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University in North Carolina, expect their findings to help in the search for AIDS treatments, and an HIV vaccine that would work by boosting the effects of apparently protective genes.

[…] First lady Laura Bush embarks on her third Africa tour June 25, during which she will visit U.S.-funded HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention and treatment projects. She also will highlight education and women’s empowerment during her five-day trip to Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia and Mali. “People can live positively with AIDS for a long time, live a healthy life,” she said at Howard University June 19, adding, “AIDS is not the death sentence that we once thought it was.”

[…] “We fully recognize that though the U.S. government is leading a global response to HIV/AIDS through bilateral and multilateral support, we can’t do it alone.” Meeting sponsors include the government of Rwanda; the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; the U.N. Children’s Fund; the World Bank; and the World Health Organization.

[…] President George Bush announced May 30 that he would work with Congress to double the U.S. commitment to fight HIV/AIDS around the world -- to $30 billion -- and reauthorize the legislation that established the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). If Congress meets the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2008, and with the new $30 billion proposal, the American people will have committed $48.3 billion over 10 years to fight HIV/AIDS.

[…] The 1986 Act failed because it gave a complete pardon (amnesty) to 3 million illegal immigrants as part of an automatic path to citizenship, did not provide the resources necessary to secure the borders adequately, relied on an employer verification system with only limited capability to detect ID fraud, provided inadequate penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and made no provisions to meet future labor needs of U.S. employers in a growing economy.

[…] President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is proving effective, according to Alec Mally, counselor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. PEPFAR, now in its fourth year, is beginning to turn the tide against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in some countries, Mally told the U.N. General Assembly May 21. Mally said that through September 30, 2006, the United States supported life-saving anti-retroviral treatment for 822,000 people in 15 countries and cared for 4.5 million people, including 2 million orphans and vulnerable children.

[…] Established in 2004, PEPFAR is a five-year, $15 billion commitment with a particular focus on the 15 countries that are among the world's most severely affected by HIV/AIDS. Also working in 100 other countries, PEPFAR is the largest public health initiative dedicated to a single disease undertaken by any nation.

[…] “Though the programs evaluated are still young,” Sepulveda wrote in the report’s preface, “it was clear that millions of people are being served and life-saving medical care is being delivered on a large scale in some of the world’s most challenging settings.”

[…] The rate at which people developed TB in 2005 was level or even declined slightly compared to 2004, according to the biannual World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Control Report released March 22, but the actual number of TB cases continued to rise slowly because the world population is expanding. A serious barrier to TB control worldwide is a form of the disease called extensively drug-resistant TB, which can develop when some treatment drugs are misused or mismanaged.

[…] “By working with host nations to build quality health care networks and increase capacity,” U.S. global AIDS coordinator Ambassador Mark Dybul testified March 1 before the House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, “we are laying the foundation for nations and communities to sustain their efforts against HIV/AIDS and other diseases long after the initial five years of the Emergency Plan.”

[…] In 2006, some 175,000 girls in 40 African countries received the scholarships, known as bursaries. Although largely unheralded by the press, the scholarship program is vital on a continent where most public schools charge fees and where girls are the first to drop out of school when family incomes diminish.