Investing in Health: Fighting Infectious Disease for Sustainable Development

Additional information: Press Briefing: U.S. Leadership and Health; Claude Allen, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Johannesburg, South Africa (8/29/02)

Purpose of the Initiative: The Bush Administration is committed to advancing the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other major infectious diseases. The Administration’s goal is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity. To achieve this aim, the U.S is leading a multi-year initiative to:

• Pursue global partnerships and increase investment in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, especially in countries hard hit by these three diseases and those with the least resources to cope with them.

• Strengthen surveillance and monitoring, research, prevention, and care activities.

• Expand efforts to combat mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Resources: U.S. resources for international HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria were $1.1 billion committed in fiscal year 2002, and $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2003. The Administration has requested $2 billion for fiscal year 2004.

Partners: The United States works with a wide array of partners including: donor and developing governments; international organizations such as UNAIDS, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; and private corporations, foundations, faith-based groups and other non-governmental organizations.

Partnership efforts to date:

• On May 27, 2003, President Bush signed legislation authorizing his new, five-year $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as he announced in his State of the Union address in January. This initiative will maintain current HIV/AIDS programs in more than 50 countries, while dramatically increasing new resources in fourteen of the hardest-hit countries in Africa and the Caribbean. The Emergency Plan will feature the largest rollout to date of anti-retroviral medicines and will substantially strengthen HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in these countries, providing treatment to 2 million persons and care to 10 million individuals and orphans, and averting 7 million new infections.

• In June, 2002, President Bush announced a $500 million International Mother and Child HIV Prevention initiative that will work in partnership with governments and health groups in these same fourteen countries, plus a Caribbean regional health institution, to make a real and sustained reduction in the number of children born each year with HIV.

• The U.S pledge of $1.65 billion to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria represents approximately one-half of all pledges to date. By bringing together a wide array of governments, corporations, and non-governmental organizations, the Global Fund presents an exciting new approach to tackling these three diseases. It promises to deliver real impact through scaling up effective interventions. To date, 154 projects from 85 different countries or partnerships have been approved for funding.

• The U.S. Government continues to meet with major multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and UNICEF, to identify opportunities for collaboration.

• In the “AIDS in Africa-2023, Scenario Building Project,” the U.S. Government has partnered with Shell Oil Company and UNAIDS, to predict how HIV/AIDS will progress in Africa and to identify the most effective ways to cooperatively fight the pandemic.

• National governments, philanthropic organizations, corporations, non-governmental organizations, including faith- and community- based organizations, and others are encouraged to join this global partnership and increase their own efforts to support the fight against these diseases.

USG Points of Contact: Department of State: Office of International Health Affairs (E-mail: OES-IHA-Mail@state.gov, Nancy Carter-Foster, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Science (Telephone: 202/647-2435; E-mail: fosternc@state.gov; Agency for International Development: Jason Wright (Telephone: 202/712-5146; E-Mail: jawright@usaid.gov; and Department of Health and Human Services: Dr. Melinda Moore (Telephone: 301/443-1774; E-Mail mmoore@osophs.dhhs.gov)