"In too many countries too much money goes to pay for too many people to go to too many meetings, get on too many airplanes," proclaimed the former U.S. President Bill Clinton in a keynote address at one of those very meetings, the XVIII Annual International AIDS Conference which was held last week in Vienna. Clinton added, "Keep in mind that every dollar we waste today puts a life at risk." The meetings and airfare are only the tip of the iceberg. Dollars desperately needed to save lives of AIDS patients have never left Washington or have been wasted on unnecessary overhead around the world.
The kinds of people President Clinton had in mind are like Ninsiima Agatha, who was profiled recently in the Wall Street Journal. Ninsiima is a 20-year-old mother with two children in Uganda, a country once considered a model of success for HIV/AIDS relief efforts. Ninsiima entered a medical clinic a few months ago after finding out that her husband was HIV-positive. She was now also infected and in dire need of lifesaving treatment for her and her two children.
Without access to life-saving drugs, she knew her health would quickly deteriorate, and perhaps more importantly, she would likely pass the disease on to the baby she was breast-feeding. Tragically, however, the clinic had reached its quota of patients under its contract with the U.S. government. The article explains, "Ms. Agatha, sprawled on a hospital bed with a toddler and an infant, could barely move. 'I feel desperate,' she said."
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, has seen its clinics in Uganda flooded with patients turned away by U.S. funded programs.
Despite billions of dollars annually to support global HIV/AIDS initiatives, the challenges we face remain daunting. As many as 33.4 million people are already infected with HIV and another 2.7 million become infected each year. Only 4 million are currently being treated, 2.4 million of which through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). More needs to be done to place greater emphasis on treatment as opposed to bloated administrative budgets and ineffective awareness campaigns.
Legislation introduced last week -- S.3627, The HIV/AIDS Save Lives First Act of 2010 -- renews our commitment to providing life-saving treatment to the millions of patients in need. This legislation increases the percentage of U.S. bilateral funding that must go directly toward treating patients, limits the administrative overhead of both government agencies and recipients of funding, and requires funding recipients to be more cost-effective. The bill will accomplish these goals within the existing budget of the program.
This legislation sets a treatment goal for the PEPFAR program of 5 million patients by 2013 -- twice the current number receiving treatment through the program -- while devoting the necessary resources to make this goal a reality. Further, this legislation provides for and sets the goal of completely eliminating baby AIDS -- mother to child transmission -- once and for all.
A renewed commitment to saving lives has never been more critical. Despite the significant success of the United States bilateral relief efforts the global fight against AIDS is now at risk of failure. Recent news reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, respectively, have featured ominous titles such as "War on AIDS Hangs in Balance as U.S. Curbs Help for Africa," and "At Front Lines, AIDS War Is Falling Apart." Terrible reports of patients once promised treatment being denied care have been confirmed by U.S. officials. The Department of Health and Human Services advises their partners to support "an equitable system of triage for total ART [antiretroviral drug treatment] slots..."
This is unacceptable. We know that HIV/AIDS is a disease that we can diagnose, treat, and prevent. Not only does treatment save lives, it is the best prevention tool we have. Treatment lowers viral loads, which reduces the likelihood of individuals spreading the disease by as much as 92 percent. Treatment reduces transmission among partners, eliminates completely mother to child transmission, and keeps those with HIV in the medical system where they can receive proper counseling and care. And the availability of treatment is integral to promoting HIV/AIDS testing and early diagnosis.
America made a commitment to lead the global war against AIDS. There is no reason to retreat. In these difficult economic times every dollar not spent saving a life or preventing a new infection is a dollar misspent. Hopefully, President Clinton's remarks and the dire situation in Africa will encourage American and world leaders to take the necessary steps to prioritize saving lives.
Yep, I guess it is a waste, passing out and selling Billions of pieces of Latex to control this Pandemic. And it keeps on getting worse and worse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/opinion/01RAMP.html
http://www.thebody.com/content/art32203.html
OH BTW, less funding for HIV/AIDS means more of it around the world, AND more drug resistant strains,(Which means more and more people die!).
Grow up and think past your own front yard please.
Btw..check out this article: AIDS Activists 'Rage' at Obama, 'Pine' for Bush?
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/07/29/aids-activists-rage-obama-pine-bush-wapo-puts-10#ixzz0v5KE1bNU
There were 32 studies on circumcision included in the 2010 AIDS Conference packet. The vast majority focus on finding the best way to convince adults to circumcise themselves, their young children, and their newborn infants. WHY aren't "researchers" seeking to find "better ways" to prevent HIV? Why can't the seem to focus on anything else?
The theme of the Vienna conference was "rights here, right now." WHY is there no concern being given to children's rights? What about the "voice of the voiceless" Mr. Sidibe was talking about?
Clinton an Gates are really plugging circumcision. But what are they going to do in the event that a population doesn't want to mutilate themselves or their children? Have they thought of plan B? Or is all they can see in their minds is a world where everyone is circumcised, like it or not?
Circumcising healthy, non-consenting infants is a violation of their basic human rights. As long as people behind the AIDS movement are endorsing and promoting genital mutilation I will not support them. I am going to tell all my friends that donate to UNAids and UNICEF to withhold all their donations. UNICEF is a SHAME. They should be PROTECTING children's rights, not using funds to violate them. Talk about a waste of funds.
WHY are you posting that beet juice and garlic are cures???
In America, for example, 80% of men are already circumcised from birth. The rates of infant circumcision are dropping, but at large, the population remains circumcised. These rates are at their highest in the East Coast, where cities such as Philadelphia and Washington DC rival HIV hotspots in South Africa. In the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic first hit, the rate of circumcised men in America was at 90%. One needs to question how something that never worked here in our own country is suddenly going to start working wonders in Africa.
In other countries, the "protection" remains to be seen as well. AIDS is a rising problem in Israel, where the majority of the male population is already circumcised. On Wednesday, July 7th, Malaysian AIDS Council vice-president Datuk Zaman Khan announced that than 70% of the 87,710 HIV/AIDS sufferers in the country are Muslims (in other words CIRCUMCISED). The Muslim, circumcised population accounts for 70% of the incidence of HIV, but only 60% of the population, which would mean that the circumcised population is getting HIV at a much higher rate than the non-circumcised population.
I'd like to see "studies" that explain these realities.
Maybe I'm cynical, but, . . . No he really is trying to do one thing positive.
I'm cynical too.
By his convictions? Remind me, how many times has he crossed the aisle?
Just because his supposed reasons for constantly voting NO are a bit more reasonable does not say that he is not toeing the party line.
Six African nations have HIGHER rates of AIDS among circumcised men, circumcision does nothing to prevent male-to-female transmission, nothing to prevent male-to-male transmission, and the so-called studies that purport to show some benefit female-to-male have been blasted out of the water by researchers outside of the US (for a real eye-opener, see the magisterial round-up at:
http://circumstitions.com/HIV.html
We remain the only Western nation pushing male genital mutilation as a snake-oil cure-all for whatever ills befall the world. Our researchers ignore their own biases, ignore "dry sex", ignore cultural and religious differences in the spread of disease - all so that the whole world will look just like them. Who would trust these fools with pocket change, let alone millions of dollars in funding? You can be rich, and still be dumb as a post (are you listening, Mr. Gates?).
Please be careful not to over-generalize about AIDS funding. By doing this you're undermining efforts by groups like the Global Fund who are using the funds provided by the US to achieve amazing, almost miraculous, results.
You can give $15 billion but if it is not spent wisely or focused on prevention methods that work i.e. contraception, if money is not allotted to discuss family planning or if money is not focused on anti-virals that are proven to work rather than line the pockets of Big Pharma then yes, the crisis will continue.
Evangelicals got rich off Bush's abstinence only regs and invaded places like Uganda to convert more people. It was and is a travesty.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=how_bushs_aids_program_is_failing_africans
And then they try to claim that the programs Clinton created are Bush's true legacy, while ignoring his actual initiatives.
I bet you think billy's policy in Rwanda in 1994 was good as it reduced the number of aids cases in Rwanda.
From the William J. Clinton Foundation website:
"The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)* is a global health organization committed to strengthening integrated health systems in the developing world and expanding access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. CHAI’s solution-oriented approach focuses on improving market dynamics for medicines and diagnostics; lowering prices for treatment; accelerating access to life-saving technologies; and helping governments build the capacity required for high-quality care and treatment programs.
"Established in 2002 by President Clinton as the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, CHAI initially focused on addressing the limited access to HIV/AIDS treatment faced by developing countries, where more than 90 percent of individuals living with HIV/AIDS reside. By working in collaboration with governments and NGO partners, CHAI has been able to expand treatment access and save lives."
Georgie always was a little slow on the uptake.
the biggest failure of the anti AIDS apparatus which Clinton spoke of is in ignoring the field of what WHO calls traditional medicine (TM)
absent prejudice in the orthodox medical community it would be a very easy matter to test the natural remedies in aids clinics
one clinic devoted to each modality
1. Maharishi Ayur Veda
2. TCM ( botanical based )
3. master herbalism and Naturopathy
4. local healers
.5. vitamin C foundation protocols
6. adding mind/body medicine to the current drug treatments or the alternative treatments above e.g. adding 20 minutes 2x daily of Transcendental meditation ( TM)