U.S. urged to increase AIDS support

WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- The global fight against HIV and AIDS requires strong leadership and financial support from the United States, group convened by a Washington think tank and headed by two senators urged Thursday.

"The United States has both the capacity and responsibility to be at the forefront of the international community's effort to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who serves as co-chair of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' task force on HIV/AIDS, along with Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The United States is going to have to increase its contribution to the global AIDS fund, Kerry said. The fund, run under the auspices of the United Nations, seeks to increase funding to provide equipment, supplies and medications for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to developing countries. The fund needs "a much more significant amount of money," and the Senate will "do everything in our power" to get it, Kerry said.

Frist and Kerry recently co-sponsored a bill authorizing a $1 billion increase in the U.S. contribution to the global fund in fiscal year 2003, which begins October 1. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed the bill unanimously Thursday, and it will now go before the full Senate.

Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said, "U.S. leadership is irreplaceable in the global response to AIDS." Piot, whose agency takes the lead in human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunity deficiency syndrome matters for the United Nations, said AIDS is a top priority of the United Nations and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

AIDS activists, however, termed the $1 billion pledge paltry. Paul Davis, of Washington advocacy group ACT UP, told United Press International, "Eight thousand people die every day from this treatable illness because the United States has been unwilling to put up the necessary resources to give people the medications that keep people alive."

ACT UP would like to see the numbers in the Frist/Kerry bill pushed to $2 billion for fiscal year 2003 and $2.5 billion for 2004 -- the amounts Annan and the task force said is necessary to fight AIDS, Davis said.

He noted there is "no money for the global fund in the House side (of Congress)."

President George W. Bush has only requested $200 million for the fund, which Davis called "crumbs." Bush has hampered the fund, which could be bankrupt by the end of year, since it was launched, Davis added.

The task force also recommended that the United States encourage other G8 members -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom -- to quadruple their combined contribution to the fund from $1 billion to $4 billion.

The United States cannot do this alone, however, and requires the involvement of other countries, Kerry said. He noted that the U.S. government cannot mandate help from other countries and should be sensitive about approaching them.

Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary for global affairs in the State Department, said Secretary of State Colin Powell "is very committed" to the fight against the disease and has tried to raise the issue with the governments of both developing and developed countries.

The task force recommended the U.S. government build partnerships to fight HIV/AIDS with Russia, China and India and other countries where cases are on the increase.

"We really are looking at a worldwide epidemic," said task force member Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. "India is just over the horizon and China is coming," he said.

All attending parties, including representatives from the government of South Africa and the global fund, agreed development of a vaccine that could prevent HIV infection is essential to conquering the worldwide epidemic.

A vaccine offers the best hope for fighting the disease, Kerry said, noting the Senate has worked to create financial incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop such a vaccine.

Richard Feachem, chief operating officer of the Global Fund, warned the AIDS pandemic "will not peak until 2050 or 2060." It is "going to get a lot worse before it gets better," he said, noting AIDS has already claimed more people than the plague epidemic that swept through Europe in the 1300's.

The world should also not lose sight of malaria and tuberculosis, both of which are preventable but are on the increase in developing countries, Feachem added.