US to Spend Extra $30bn to Fight Hiv/aids, Pledges Bush

George Bush announced yesterday that the US plans to spend $30bn (£15bn) over five years in Africa and elsewhere to combat HIV/Aids.

This would make the US by far the biggest single donor to the campaign against HIV/Aids and is in addition to the $15bn Washington has been spending since 2003. Parts of Mr Bush's policy are opposed by international health organizations, academics, women's groups, European governments and even the administration's financial watchdog. In line with domestic Christian right orthodoxy, a significant proportion of the funds are channeled to religious groups advocating abstinence until marriage and refusing to distribute condoms, an approach regarded as counter-productive and costing lives.

One of the groups critical of Mr Bush's policy, the New York-based International Women's Health Coalition, welcomed the announcement, describing it as "one of his greatest accomplishments". It also expressed hope that the opportunity would be taken to drop the "abstinence only" approach.

Although the Bush administration's contributions to aid programs generally have been criticized as stingy by aid organizations, the exception is spending on HIV/Aids. Mr Bush started the President's Emergency Program for Aids Relief (Pepfar) in 2003, with $15bn to be distributed over five years. That is due to end next September.

Tony Snow, the White House press spokesman, said yesterday that 1.1 million people have received treatment so far but the new funds, to kick in from next September, would provide treatment for about 2.5 million.

Although Mr Bush announced the $30bn, he has to ask Congress to find the money. With Iraq costing billions, it will be hard for Congress to find the sum in an already over-stretched US budget.

Mr Bush made the announcement in a speech in the White House's Rose Garden attended by those involved in the program, as well as an Aids patient. Laura Bush, the first lady, is to visit Zambia, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal next month to see the program in action. As well as 12 African countries, the program operates in Haiti, Guyana and Vietnam.

The announcement puts pressure on other members of the G8, meeting in Germany next week, to be more generous than they might have been planning. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is planning to make a statement on HIV/Aids spending in the next few days. Italy has a poor record on contributions, while Tony Blair might opt for a final flourish. "We'll be watching and waiting," said Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of Data (Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa). About a seventh of all US spending on HIV/Aids goes on "abstinence only" programs, many of which provide misleading information about condoms, such as emphasizing their failure rates.

Reacting to Mr Bush's announcement, Terri Bartlett, vice-president for public affairs at the Washington-based Population Action International, who is in Berlin for the run-up to the G8 meeting, said: "We welcome this and urge Congress to take up the challenge but it also offers a great opportunity to make Pepfar much more effective by correcting policies based on evidence, not ideology."

Dr John Santelli, of the Columbia University' school of public health, praised the president, but said he had concerns about the abstinence policy. "You can't run a good program if you are sending mixed messages. You advocate abstinence in one place and distribute condoms at a clinic nearby, and the US is funding both."

Backstory

George Bush's spending on HIV/Aids is seen as a success story. According to figures published yesterday, between 2003 and early 2007 more than 850,000 people received life-sustaining antiretroviral treatment as a result of US funding. Before yesterday Mr Bush allocated $15bn for HIV/Aids funding between 2003 and 2008 but experts have estimated that this would in reality total about $18bn and contrasted favorably with the overall international effort.