Everything Science Forum

Bush promises to double US Aids budget

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18946059/


http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Bush_to_call_for_expanding_fight_ag_05302007.html


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President George W. Bush on Wednesday pledged an additional $15bn to the global fight against Aids over the next five years, doubling the existing US commitment.

The announcement came a week before the G8 summit of industrialised nations in Germany, where tackling poverty and disease in Africa, the world's most Aids-ravaged continent, is expected to be high on the agenda.

The fresh cash, which is subject to Congressional approval, would take US spending on anti-Aids initiatives to $30bn since Mr Bush launched the President's Emergency Programme for Aids Relief four years ago.


Mr Bush said the money would provide treatment for 2.5m people and aim to prevent 12m new infections.

"This level of assistance is unprecedented, and the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history," he said.

Health activists welcomed the increased funding but said its effectiveness would be undermined by the US focus on tackling Aids through sexual abstinence before marriage rather than through promoting safer sex practices, such as use of condoms.

Mr Bush's Aids relief programme is required by law to allocate at least a third of funds to programmes that encourage abstinence before marriage, reflecting pressure from Christian conservative groups in the US.

"This is not a prevention strategy," said Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity. "It is an exercise in unreality."

Congress must approve the additional spending before September next year, when the original five-year mandate for the Aids relief programme expires.

Wednesday's pledge marked the second Africa-focused foreign policy initiative by Mr Bush this week, following his announcement on Tuesday of fresh US efforts to end the bloodshed in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Mr Bush ordered new US sanctions against Sudan and launched a push for tougher UN action against the country, which is accused of supporting militia groups responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in Darfur.

Together, the Darfur and Aids initiatives appeared timed to provide Mr Bush with two concrete humanitarian measures to trumpet at Heiligendamm, venue of the G8 meeting.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has vowed to make Africa one of the central issues at the summit, including a push for G8 members to live up to their two year-old promise to double development aid by 2010.

Agreement on Africa next week could help mask continued differences between the US and Europe over how to tackle climate change – another of the main issues on the G8 agenda.