WASHINGTON D.C. - (Business Wire)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the U.S., Africa, Latin America and Asia, today cheered the
Washington Post’s nod to Senator Tom Coburn
’s (R-OK) efforts to preserve the AIDS treatment focus in the President
’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
“Senate Roadblock” examines the reasons behind the hold that Sen. Coburn and six others have placed on the current bill. Though the editorial ultimately urges Sen. Coburn and his colleagues to remove the hold, it does concede that the Senator
“has a point
” in striving to preserve the mandate that 55% of PEPFAR funds go toward providing medical treatment
—a major reason behind the success of the program
’s first five years.
“AHF lauds the Washington Post for seeing beyond partisanship and for recognizing the practical and lifesaving intent of Sen. Coburn’s efforts to keep the focus of PEPFAR on providing medical treatment,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “The Senator’s focus is, and the bill’s focus must remain, on increasing the number of patients receiving lifesaving antiretroviral treatment. However, despite a 330% proposed funding increase, the current bill only raises the treatment goal by 50%--from 2 million to 3 million people. The funding is tripling. Drug prices are falling. There is no excuse for not tripling the number of lives saved and raising the treatment goal to 7 million. The potential results of keeping the treatment goal as it is? Four million lives lost, more infections, more babies born with AIDS, and more AIDS orphans."
A delegation of AHF medical personnel and AIDS treatment clients recently traveled from Africa to Washington D.C. to speak out firsthand about the importance of preserving PEPFAR’s AIDS treatment focus and to detail the positive impact access to lifesaving antiretroviral therapy has had on their communities.
The Washington Post editorial “Senate Roadblock” (6/1/08) states, “…Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and six other Republicans have exercised their prerogative to keep it off the Senate floor. Mr. Coburn wants to mandate that 55 percent of PEPFAR's money go to treating those who are already sick with AIDS -- as opposed to preventing new cases and other purposes. That was the rule during PEPFAR's first five years. And Mr. Coburn has a point: As the program grows to include tuberculosis and malaria and as the definition of HIV-AIDS prevention work expands, PEPFAR risks mutating into all-purpose development aid or taking on goals -- such as changing traditional attitudes toward gender -- which are not only culturally sensitive but hard to measure in terms of progress.”
About AHF
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 70,000 individuals in 22 countries worldwide in the U.S., Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Lori Yeghiayan, 323-860-5227
Mobile: 323-377-4312
lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org
oe
Ged Kenslea, 323-860-5225
Mobile: 323-791-5526
gedk@aidshealth.org
