US mayors to follow up on Bush visit

As a follow-up to President Bush’s Africa tour last June, undertaken largely to promote the launch of his global fund on HIV/AIDS, a delegation of nine US mayors is to visit four African countries later this month.

The delegation, led by Hempstead mayor James A. Garner, will travel to South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda. Their reception is being organised by the Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa – a body created in 1998 by prominent mayors from throughout sub-Saharan Africa with the stated mission “to curb the impact of HIV/AIDS on our communities”.

In a press statement released over the weekend, Garner described the visit as a “historic journey”, and said its goal "is to further sustainable efforts in sharing and learning about HIV/AIDS and prevention".

The meeting follows a conference in Colorado at the end of June in which mayors from Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda were invited to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on cities and the best means of prevention in urban environments.

And in a recent letter to Bush, the US episcopate urged the president "to do everything you can to fulfil the commitments made" during the tour of Africa.

They warned that congress "might betray the promises" made by Bush and called on him to press congress to "appropriate the $3 billion which has been authorised for the HIV/AIDS initiative, and the $1.3 billion which you requested for the MCA [Millennium Challenge Account] initiative".

Thirty million people are estimated to be infected with the deadly virus in Africa – about 70 percent of the total global population of HIV-positive people.