08 March 2007
2008 AIDS Relief Budget Request Tops Original Commitment, March 8, 2007 (United States remains global leader in fight against AIDS, official says)
By Cheryl Pellerin
USINFO Staff Writer
Washington – President Bush has asked the U.S. Congress to approve $5.4 billion for his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for fiscal year 2008 (2008-2009), the last year of the five-year effort to fight HIV/AIDS around the world.
If that funding is approved, the PEPFAR program – the largest commitment by a single nation to an international health initiative – would be on track to exceed the original $15 billion pledge and bring to $18.3 billion the amount of money the United States has invested in the fight against AIDS.
“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.”
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed at least 20 million of the more than 60 million people it has infected so far, leaving 14 million orphans worldwide. On the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have the AIDS virus – including 3 million children under age 15, according to the White House.
Bush announced the PEPFAR program in 2003 to support treatment for 2 million HIV-infected people, help prevent 7 million new infections and help care for 10 million people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS by 2008 in 15 focus countries – Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia. (See related fact sheet.)
INVESTMENTS TO DATE
Resources are being invested mainly in partnerships with host nations to build health care networks and increase capacity, Dybul said, but PEPFAR also amplifies the effects of other international HIV interventions by working with and contributing to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Other international partners include the World Bank; United Nations agencies, led by UNAIDS; other national governments; and private-sector businesses and foundations.
Dybul recapped progress toward the plan’s goals through the end of September 2006:
• Treatment -- The number of people receiving treatment with support from PEPFAR bilateral partnerships was 987,100 – about half the estimated 2 million receiving treatment in low- and middle-income countries. PEPFAR also supported training or retraining of about 52,000 people in providing treatment. PEPFAR’s impact on treatment includes increased availability of safe, effective, low-cost generic anti-retroviral drugs in the developing world.
• Prevention -- PEPFAR supports the most comprehensive evidence-based programs, including prevention activities that focus on sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission, HIV transmission through unsafe blood and medical injections, and HIV awareness. Community outreach programs reached about 61.5 million people, and PEPFAR supported anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-positive women during 533,700 pregnancies, saving an estimated 101,500 infants from HIV infection.
• Care -- Through fiscal year 2006, PEPFAR supported care for nearly 4.5 million people worldwide, including 2 million orphans and vulnerable children, and more support for national efforts to provide care for related infections, especially HIV/tuberculosis co-infection. PEPFAR supported training for about 143,000 people in caring for orphans and vulnerable children, nearly 94,000 in caring for people living with HIV/AIDS, and more than 66,000 in providing counseling and testing services.
PEPFAR AND DEVELOPMENT
“At least one quarter of PEPFAR’s total resources are devoted to capacity-building in the public and private health sectors,” Dybul said, “supporting physical infrastructure, healthcare systems, and workforce development.”
One example is a recently announced $10 million public-private partnership called Phones for Health. The program brings together mobile-phone operators, handset manufacturers and technology companies who work closely with ministries of health, global health organizations and other partners to use mobile technology to strengthen health care services and monitoring systems.
“The Phones for Health network will have applications for more than just HIV/AIDS,” Dybul said. “In the event of an outbreak of bird flu, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or any other suddenly arising epidemic, this system and others like it will prove to be invaluable.”
In September 2006, Laura Bush announced a $60 million public-private partnership called the PlayPump Alliance, an effort among PlayPumps International, PEPFAR, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other private-sector partners to bring the benefits of clean drinking water to up to 10 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. (See related article.)
PlayPumpTM water systems are innovative, patented water pumps powered by children at play. They are installed near schools and double as water pumps and merry-go-rounds for children. Through USAID and PEPFAR, the U.S. government will provide $10 million to the alliance over three years. The goal is for every U.S. government tax dollar to be matched by $5 from the private sector.
The investment will provide and support the installation of the water systems in 650 schools, health centers and HIV-affected communities. HIV/AIDS messages on PlayPumpTM billboards will spread the word about healthy behavior.
More information about PEPFAR is available on the organization’s Web site.
For more information on U.S. policy, see President Bush's HIV/AIDS Initiatives.
