Bush pushes more Aids funding
2007-05-31 16:57
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned governments against using the economic crisis as an excuse to cut funding for fighting Aids.
Washington - President George W Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to authorise an additional $30bn to fight Aids
in Africa in the next five years, double the present commitment.
The money would provide treatment for 2.5 million people under
the President's Emergency Programme for Aids Relief, said Bush.
Since March 31, the programme has supported treatment for 1.1
million people in 15 countries, including more than one million in Africa, he said. The programme's original five-year mandate, which
called for spending $15bn, expires in
September 2008, and Bush asked Congress to renew it.
"When I took office, an HIV diagnosis in Africa's poorest
communities was usually a death sentence. Parents watched their
babies die needlessly because local clinics lacked effective
treatments," the president said.
"Once again, the generosity of the
American people is one of the great untold stories of our time."
White House press secretary Tony Snow said the specific goals
for the next five years - Bush leaves office on January 20 2009 - are to treat 2.5 million people, prevent more than 12 million new
infections and care for more than 12 million people, including five million orphans and children.
The president said, "This money will be spent wisely," in nations where it can have the greatest possible impact and be sustainable.
Bush also announced that his wife, Laura, would visit four
African countries - Zambia, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal - which
had benefited from the US programme and would report back on her
findings. The trip will be from June 25-29.
The president's announcement comes before next week's annual summit of industrialised nations in Heiligendamm, Germany.
Germany is pledging to make Africa a central issue and is calling for more aid, further debt relief and improved financial oversight.
- SAPA