AHF Supports Obama's Call for More AIDS Drugs for Poor Patients.

Call Comes as Senate Considers PEPFAR Global AIDS Bill with No Treatment Funding Requirement

WASHINGTON -- AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which provides AIDS medical care to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide, today supported Senator Barak Obama's call for more widespread availability of AIDS drugs for poor patients, a call he made Sunday evening during CNN's 'Compassion Forum,' a televised conversation on faith and politics at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. In response to a question on the role of abstinence in HIV prevention from Dr. Frank Page, a minister who cited his own church's role in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda in "True Love Waits," an abstinence-only program, Senator Obama stated: "I also think that contraception is important; I also think that treatment is important; I also think that we have to do more to make antiviral drugs available to people who are in extreme poverty."

Obama's call comes at the same time the Senate is considering a bill to reauthorize PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), the successful US global AIDS program initially spearheaded by President Bush. The current Senate and House versions of the bill wending their way through Congress have unfortunately removed requirements that any PEPFAR funds actually be spent on lifesaving treatment, despite the fact that Congress is tripling the funding for PEPFAR to $50 billion over the next five years up from its initial $15 billion, five year commitment.

"We support Senator Obama's call to make lifesaving AIDS treatment more widely available to poor people and those in need and we also strongly urge him to support an amendment to the PEPFAR bill to preserve the requirement that a certain percentage of the funding is actually targeted to such lifesaving treatment. AHF would like to see that 55% of the funding goes toward care and treatment, as current law requires," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "The Senate version of the reauthorization bill has removed this critical funding requirement despite the fact that the bill more than triples the original appropriation to $50 billion. This bill also only increases the treatment goal from two million people to three million-less than ten percent of the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. It seems odd that you would call for more treatment, triple the money, but take out an already existing rule that you have to spend 55% on treatment. Legally, there is no requirement whatsoever in the pending Senate bill that any money actually be spent on lifesaving treatment."

Last week, Six AIDS medical care providers and treatment clients traveled to Washington from Africa from AIDS Healthcare Foundation clinics in Uganda and South Africa to lobby Senate leaders and staffers to reinstate the requirement that a minimum percentage of PEPFAR funds be spent on lifesaving treatment, something AHF believes has been key to the success of PEPFAR.

SOUTH AFRICA

Jenny Boyce, a mother of three from Durban, South Africa 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. She 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.

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 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org.