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Jeffersonian Liberal
- May 22, 2010
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(Desmond Tutu -NYT Op-Ed)- HAVING met President Obama, Im confident that hes a man of conscience who shares my commitment to bringing hope and care to the worlds poor. But I am saddened by his decision to spend less than he promised to treat AIDS patients in Africa.
George W. Bush made an impressive commitment to the international fight against AIDS when he formed the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program. Since 2004, Pepfar has spent $19 billion to help distribute anti-viral treatments to about 2.5 million Africans infected with H.I.V.
Thanks to these efforts and similar initiatives, like those spearheaded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria the number of African patients with access to AIDS drugs jumped tenfold from 2003 to 2008. Since 2004, the AIDS-related mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped 18 percent.
Yet President Obama added only $366 million to the program this year well below the $1 billion per year he promised to add when he was on the campaign trail. (Pepfars total budget now stands at $7 billion.) Most of the countries in Pepfar will see no increase in aid.
Under the Bush administration, about 400,000 more African patients received treatment every year. President Obamas Pepfar strategy would reduce the number of new patients receiving treatment to 320,000 resulting in 1.2 million avoidable deaths over the next five years, according to calculations by two Harvard researchers, Rochelle Walensky and Daniel Kuritzkes. Doctors would have to decide which of the 22 million Africans afflicted with H.I.V. should receive treatment and which should not.
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