| | World AIDS Day 2008: Celebrate Life!
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 On World AIDS Day 2008, we celebrate life. In countless communities around the world, through partnerships with the American people, courageous individuals in nations devastated by HIV/AIDS are choosing life, saving the lives of their fellow countrymen and women, and creating hope for a future free of HIV/AIDS. Through the power of these partnerships, the American people and the dedicated men and women in nations devastated by HIV/ AIDS have proven that the seemingly impossible is possible.
On December 1, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced that the United States has fulfilled its commitment early to support treatment for two million people. As of September 30, 2008, PEPFAR supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than 2.1 million men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS around the world. When President George W. Bush announced PEPFAR in 2003, it was estimated that only 50,000 people were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Today, PEPFAR supports treatment for more than 2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- forty times the number receiving treatment only five years ago.
As of September 30, 2008, nearly 9.7 million people affected by HIV/AIDS in PEPFAR's 15 focus countries had received compassionate care, including nearly 4 million orphans and vulnerable children. It is safe to say that as of December 1, 2008, the U.S. also has met the goal of supporting care for 10 million people affected by HIV in the focus countries. Globally, the U.S. is supporting care for over 10.1 million, including over 4 million children.
In addition, nearly 240,000 babies have been born free of HIV, due to the support of the American people for programs to prevent mothers from passing the virus on to their children. And PEPFAR has supported a strategic prevention portfolio which includes Abstinence, Be faithful, and correct and consistent use of Condoms, providing ABC prevention messages in hundreds of millions of encounters. [more]
World AIDS Day Resources:
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President Bush Signs PEPFAR Reauthorization Legislation
 On July 30, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act. In 2003, President Bush launched the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat global HIV/AIDS - the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history. The new legislation will dramatically increase the financial commitment to this fight - authorizing up to $48 billion to combat global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Under this legislation, the next phase of the American people's commitment to those suffering from HIV/AIDS will support treatment for at least 3 million people; prevention of 12 million new infections; and care for 12 million people, including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.
· Fact Sheet: Reauthorizing PEPFAR
· White House Fact Sheet: A Historic and Lifesaving Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS
· Remarks: President Bush Signs H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008
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| | A-Z Subject Index
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New UNAIDS Executive Director |
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Ask the State Department with Tanziania Ambassador Green |
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PEPFAR Highlights |
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