WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) Six AIDS medical care providers and treatment clients from Uganda and South Africa are visiting Washington, DC this week for a series of meetings on Capitol Hill with Senate and Congressional leaders to lobby Congress as they consider bills to reauthorize PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the successful US global AIDS program. The group, all of whom are treatment clients or medical providers of
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) (
www.aidshealth.org), which provides AIDS medical care to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide, will lobby Congress to reinstate a requirement that a minimum percentage of PEPFAR funding be required to be spent on lifesaving treatment. The original PEPFAR bill, first proposed by President Bush five years ago, has a requirement that 55% of all funds be targeted for treatment. The current Senate and House versions of the bill wending their way through Congress have unfortunately removed a requirement that
any PEPFAR funds be spent on lifesaving treatment, despite the fact that Congress is increasing funding for PEPFAR to $50 billion over the next five years up from its initial $15 billion, five year commitment.
“The removal of language that requires that PEPFAR directs a specific percentage of its funds towards lifesaving AIDS care and treatment will cost millions of people their lives,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “This bill more than triples the original appropriation to $50 billion while only increasing the treatment goal from two million people to three million–less than ten percent of the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. On behalf of the 50,000 AIDS Healthcare Foundation patients we care for in the developing world, we express our deep regret over the cavalier redirection of these potentially lifesaving funds, and urge Congress reinstate a treatment funding floor to PEPFAR.”
UGANDA
“As a Medical Doctor in Uganda, a country with over 1.1 million people infected with HIV of whom only 120,000 are receiving these life saving medications and over 240,000 who will need ARVs within the next 5 years, this spells doom,” said Penninah Iutung, MD, Medical Director, AHF/Uganda CARES. “The new PEPFAR bill being worked on only increases the treatment goals by one million people in the next five years, a move that will only create despair and hopelessness where so much hope has been raised.”
“As both a health care provider and client at one of AHF’s African clinics, I stand here today in Washington as living proof that antiretroviral treatment saves lives if people have access to them,” said Uganda’s Grace Akampumuza, who has also been trained by, and works as an HIV Medic for, AHF’s Uganda CARES. “I urge the U.S. Congress to reconsider this crucial AIDS funding legislation and put back the requirement that PEPFAR spend a designated amount of its funding on lifesaving treatment. In Uganda, most of my close relatives, including my husband, have died of AIDS. He left me with three children. I was lucky enough that my children are HIV negative, but when my own health started deteriorating and I decided to go for an HIV test, my test result was positive. My health failed; I was not able to walk or do anything for myself and I knew for sure I was going to die. After some care and treatment at a private clinic, I heard about AIDS Healthcare Foundation, this organization that was giving free ARVs in Masaka. In June 2003, I started getting free ARVs from the AHF/Uganda CARES clinic. Since that time my life has changed, I live with the virus on a daily basis, every day I am confronted with the real thing. Treatment has saved my life. I take my pills at the right time, in the right way and the right dose. I am happy to see my children grow, because I was otherwise going to die when they were still very young.”
Not only is Akampumuza one of the client success stories of AHF’s free AIDS treatment clinics in Uganda, she has also become an integral part of AHF’s Uganda-CARES team of health care providers. Akampumuza, who had formerly been an accountant, was trained by AHF to become an “HIV Medic,” a treatment extender and community health worker who performs routine, but time-consuming tasks such as taking a patient’s blood pressure and medical history, which frees up valuable time for doctors and nurses to see and treat more patients. AHF’s HIV Medic training program is an innovative approach by AHF to address the urgent need for AIDS care providers in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.
“I have coordinated a successful prevention and HIV testing program in the St. Balikuddembe Marketplace in Kampala, Uganda, the largest market in East Africa with over 50,000 vendors,” said Angelina Wapakabulo, an AHF/Uganda CARES advisor. “Why do I say our program is a success? Because everyone undergoing an HIV test is assured of care and treatment should they test HIV positive. ‘Why test when I am not sure if I will get ARVs should I test positive and need them? I would rather not know!’ was a frequent comment by market vendors being urged to know their HIV status before a clinic offering ARVs and medication for opportunistic infections was set up by AIDS Healthcare Foundation in the market community. The best way of mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS in our communities is to provide more opportunities for HIV testing, as well as assurance of uninterrupted availability of ARVs for all those who need them. There is no guarantee this will happen without a specific percentage of funding being designated to cater for testing and treatment.”
SOUTH AFRICA
"It's such a treat to see Phumla playing with the children again and smiling. It had been so long. We thought we had lost her," said Lydia Nyide, of Durban, South Africa, who cares for her 10 year-old granddaughter, Phumla, and her brother following the death of both Lydia's daughter and son-in-law from AIDS. “When I first brought Phumla to AHF’s Ithembalabantu Free AIDS Treatment Clinic in Durban in 2003, Phumla had a terrible skin infection. Children had been so mean to her in school that I had taken her out. After six months on treatment, her skin infection cleared, her coughing and vomiting stopped, and Phumla went back to school. The ARV treatments have literally saved Phumla’s life and helped keep our family alive and healthy. I would urge US leaders to consider requiring that at least some of the money in President Bush’s global AIDS program be specifically designated for AIDS treatment.”
Jenny Boyce, a mother of three also from Durban has been on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment at AHF’s Ithembalabantu Clinic (Zulu for ‘people’s hope’) since 2002 and was one of the clinic’s first clients in South Africa. She also traveled to Washington to tell her story to legislators and congressional staffers. “At that time, I had been quite sick, and all I wanted was five more years in order to raise my children. Today, two are college graduates, and my youngest, Dylan, who was eight at the time, has started high school. I would be dead today and my children would be orphans without my having access to treatment. I, however, am one of the lucky ones; there are still so many in South Africa without access to treatment leaving countless orphans behind when they die. I urge all those legislators involved in renewing this important US global AIDS program to please place a priority on treatment in this bill.”
PEPFAR was the result of President Bush's groundbreaking 2003 State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment for 1.4 million people worldwide. PEPFAR has been one of the most successful global humanitarian programs in recent memory, providing medical care to millions of people with HIV/AIDS, it has given hope to the 33 million people with HIV/AIDS in the world.
About AHF
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention and education provider. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea, 323-860-5225
Mobile: 323-791-5526
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Alternate Media Contact
Lori Yeghiayan, 323-860-5227
Mobile: 323-377-4312
lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org
