WASHINGTON - (Business Wire)
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) (
www.aidshealth.org), which provides AIDS medical care to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide, expressed its profound disappointment with the House of Representatives for its the passage today of the bill to reauthorize PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the successful US global AIDS program. The bill (
House Resolution 5501 (the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act)), has absolutely no requirement that any of the $50 billion being allocated to PEPFAR over the next five years be spent on treatment. The current version of the bill requires that 55% of its funds be spent on treatment, a provision that AHF believes has been key to the success of President Bush
’s landmark legislation over the past five years.
“We are very disappointed in the bill that passed the House earlier today. This is an historic retreat in the United States’ commitment to AIDS treatment. The removal of the requirement that PEPFAR directs a specific percentage of funds towards lifesaving AIDS care and treatment will cost millions of people their lives and gives a free hand to bureaucracy,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “This bill started out with the intention to save lives. Yet in the legislative process, it has undergone massive ‘mission creep,’ and as a result, has taken its eyes off the prize of global AIDS control. 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. We implore the Senate to take a more considered action on this bill.” This bill more than triples the original appropriation 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.
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
Lori Yeghiayan, 323-860-5227
Mobile: 323-377-4312
lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org
