14646: Slavin: NYTimes: Dr. Pape on new US AIDS Funds (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PSlavin@unicefusa.org

January 30, 2003

Africans Welcome U.S. Help on AIDS
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

OHANNESBURG, Jan. 29 ? Astonished officials in Africa and the Caribbean
today welcomed the Bush administration's plan to spend $10 billion in new
money on AIDS drugs, education, doctors and specialized laboratories in 14
countries ravaged by AIDS.

Twelve countries in Africa, the region hit hardest by the disease, stand to
benefit from the money, which will be spread over five years. The
initiative, which was announced by President Bush in his State of the Union
message, is intended to provide drugs for two million people, care for 10
million AIDS patients and orphans, and education to help stem the epidemic.
The plan will also cover AIDS projects in Haiti and Guyana.

Congress must first approve the program, which will include $5 billion of
previously announced spending, and officials scrambled today for details
about how it would work. Some worried that the Bush administration might
not pay for condoms. Others noted that the money, while welcome, would have
little effect in a continent where nearly 30 million people are infected
with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The United Nations estimates that by 2005, $10.5 billion will be needed to
cover the costs of the epidemic each year. But that did not stop people
from praising the Bush administration, which said it was tripling its
spending on AIDS. In the past, the administration has often been criticized
for doing too little to stop the epidemic.

"My prayer is that when this funding comes we'll see a reduction of people
being affected by AIDS," said Prega Ramsamy, the executive director of the
Southern African Development Community, which represents most countries in
this region.

Doctors in Haiti, which has the highest rate of H.I.V. infection outside of
sub-Saharan Africa, were buoyed by the president's proposal, which they say
comes at a time when an increase in AIDS clinics is expected to produce a
50-fold rise in the number of people identified as infected with H.I.V.

"It can have a huge impact," said Dr. Jean W. Pape, who directs the Gheskio
Centers, which has been at the forefront of fighting the illness in Haiti.
"By identifying more people, we will need much more support for care. It is
essential that we be able to offer care to those people."

Dr. Pape's group, which is affiliated with Cornell University, has
increased the number of doctors trained to fight the disease and is helping
staff 25 clinics throughout Haiti. But he said it was still especially
important to increase the number of people who have access to
antiretroviral therapy. At his center, one of only two in the country that
offer such treatment, only 100 patients are receiving those drugs.

"But we have 4,000 right now who require therapy," he said, speaking only
of patients served at his clinic. "Right now we give them help with
preventing and treating opportunistic infections. But that is very
different than offering ARV therapy. We don't have the drugs." Upwards of
300,000 Haitians are H.I.V.-positive, he said, and of those about 30,000
require therapy.

In Botswana, officials said they hoped the money would be used to buy AIDS
drugs and to hire more doctors and nurses. Botswana is the only country in
Africa to commit to providing AIDS drugs for all its citizens. But the
disease is killing Botswana's nurses and doctors, and the country is
struggling to fill the gap.

"This news is a very encouraging thing to us in Africa," said Abinel
Whendero, the acting coordinator of the government's National AIDS
Coordinating Agency, said of the Bush plan. "The scourge is taking its
human toll here."

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations envoy for AIDS in Africa, hailed the new
spending plan as "a dramatic signal from the U.S. administration that it is
ready to confront the pandemic." He said he hoped other wealthy countries
would follow suit.

"The international financial delinquency that has haunted the response to
AIDS in Africa is hardly that of the United States alone," said Mr. Lewis,
who was visiting Johannesburg as part of fact-finding mission in the
region. "It extends, without exception, to all the wealthy donor nations."

The Bush administration said the program would focus on Africa,
particularly, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania,
Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Many questions remain about how the program will work. AIDS experts still
do not know whether Washington will provide money to governments or send it
directly to specific projects.

But even with those lingering questions, regular critics of the American
government took pains to praise the step forward.

"Look, more money for AIDS is good news," said Ellen 't Hoen of Doctors
Without Borders, a medical charity that has led the fight for lower-priced
AIDS drugs and has criticized the Bush administration. "This is a
significant increase over what the U.S. government is spending now."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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