WASHINGTON — President Bush asked Congress Wednesday to boost funding to fight AIDS and treat up to 2.5 million people with the disease around the world. His proposal for $30 billion over five years would extend an existing AIDS prevention program, which Congress first approved in 2003 and expires next year. The president often has touted the program, which also fights tuberculosis and malaria, as a key piece of his foreign policy.
"Villages in Africa now talk of the 'Lazarus Effect,' dying communities being brought back to life thanks to the compassion of the American people," Bush said in the Rose Garden.
An estimated 39.5 million people are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS. There were 4.3 million new infections in 2006 with 65% occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the U.N. program.
Bush said the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief has treated 1.1 million people. The United States will partner with different African countries and the private sector to meet specific needs, he said. "This investment has yielded the best possible return: saved lives," he said.
Bush's proposal comes a week before he and other leaders will discuss AIDS and Africa at the Group of Eight summit of leading industrialized nations. He also announced that first lady Laura Bush will travel to Mozambique, Zambia, Senegal and Mali June 25-29 to meet with current participants of HIV and AIDS programs and assess progress.
AIDS activists generally praised Bush's efforts but challenged some details.
Paul Zeitz, executive director of the non-profit Global AIDS Alliance, said the goal of treating 2.5 million people by the end of 2013 is good, but the United States should aim to treat 4 million, which he said would equal about one-third of the world's expected AIDS caseload. |