PHA-Exchange> More Than Words to Fight AIDS

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December 16, 2002
More Than Words to Fight AIDS
Earlier this month Colin Powell and Tommy Thompson gathered representatives
from 86 countries to lecture them on the importance of political leadership
in fighting AIDS. Make AIDS a global priority, said Secretary of State
Powell. Invest in global health, implored Health Secretary Thompson. Their
message was important and well timed - but should have been directed at
Washington.

The administration is not blind to the catastrophe. The president and his
top officials speak about AIDS in the most apocalyptic terms, and Mr. Powell
called the disease a more important challenge than terrorism. But when it
comes to financing, urgency vanishes. Mr. Bush is likely to visit Africa
next month. He should be carrying with him an AIDS initiative backed with
real money.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has just started to
give out its first grants and is already broke. As Washington and other
donors demanded, the fund has designed a rigorous process and has received
dozens of well-designed proposals to fight disease. But it must now tell
countries there is no money to finance them. The administration makes much
of the fact that the United States, which has pledged $500 million over two
years, is the largest donor. But when measured by the size of the economy,
it is actually giving half as much as Europe. Washington's contribution
needs to be $2.5 billion a year to make a difference.

The administration's showpiece program on AIDS this year was an initiative
to combat the transmission of the disease from mothers to babies. That has
only served to undercut a better proposal within Congress. Mr. Bush's plan
superseded a Senate proposal, backed by Jesse Helms, that would have spent
$500 million on these programs. Then the president vetoed the appropriation
containing the first year's payment. Politicians lament the tragedy of
babies with AIDS, but their concern has so far produced not a cent of new
money. And shamefully, on the last day of the Congressional session, Senate
Republicans killed a bill agreed on unanimously in the House and Senate that
would have provided $4 billion over two years to fight global AIDS.

Administration officials and members of Congress argue that there are other
things to spend money on. None are more urgent. The Central Intelligence
Agency is warning that AIDS in China, India and Russia, as well as in
Africa, is a mounting security threat for the United States. AIDS is already
destabilizing Africa. It is a major cause of a hunger crisis now affecting
38 million Africans. The world, and the United States, cannot afford to let
Mr. Bush go to Africa without a real plan to put cash behind the
administration's statements on AIDS. American officials should not be giving
anyone lectures while Washington's response to the major catastrophe of our
time remains limited largely to words.

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