Activists denounce US government HIV/AIDS initiative

AIDS activists denounced the Unites States government's announcement of a new international initiative for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa, saying the plan was "all for show".

In a press statement released on Wednesday, AIDS lobby groups ACT UP, Africa Action, the Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said the plan contained "little new money, while sabotaging a bipartisan effort that would have made a substantial new US contribution in 2002 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria".

Health Gap's Julie Davids told PlusNews on Wednesday that the impression that US $500 million would be pledged this year was false. She said the government only had about US $300 million for the project, which would start to trickle out in 2003 and 2004.

The Global Fund would have received US $700 million from a widely endorsed amendment had President George Bush not intervened, she said.

According to a White House press release, the new project is expected to reach up to one million women annually and reduce mother-to-child transmission by 40 percent within five years, or less, in 12 African countries.

The initial countries proposed by the US government are: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The programme is expected to expand to Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia.

"Worldwide close to 2,000 babies are infected with HIV every day during pregnancy, birth or through breast feeding," Bush said as he announced the initiative on Wednesday.

"Most of those infected will die before their fifth birthday. Those who are not infected will grow up as orphans when their parents die of AIDS," he added.

Activists also criticised the plan for ignoring the immediate need for medicines and HIV treatment for all HIV positive people in the developing world.

"The Bush plan prioritises paying only for mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention programmes, not to buying life extending medicines to treat people already infected with HIV. President Bush is refusing to commit the modest resources necessary to stabilise a continent being decimated by a treatable disease," said Asia Russell of Health GAP.

The US initiative focuses on increasing the availability of preventive care such as drug treatments, and building healthcare delivery systems for HIV positive pregnant women.

Meanwhile, international NGO, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), welcomed Bush's announcement, but urged the administration to support additional funding that went further in addressing the pandemic.

"We shouldn't have to rob Peter to pay Paul in order to address this emergency with the fervour it deserves," Ian Gary, CRS Strategic Issues Adviser for Africa said in a statement released on Thursday.