[Ip-health] 15 Billion!!!

[Rene Shen]

Bush has just announced 15 billion dollars over 5 years for AIDS.  Here is
the text from the state of the Union.

Rene


As our Nation moves troops and builds alliances to make our world safer, we
must also remember our calling, as a blessed country, to make this world
better. Today, on the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have
the AIDS virus including three million children under the age of 15. There
are whole countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult
population carries the infection. More than four million require immediate
drug treatment. Yet across that continent, only 50,000 AIDS victims only
50,000 are receiving the medicine they need.

Because the AIDS diagnosis is considered a death sentence, many do not seek
treatment. Almost all who do are turned away. A doctor in rural South
Africa describes his frustration. He says, We have no medicines & many
hospitals tell [people], You ve got AIDS. We can t help you. Go home and die.

In an age of miraculous medicines, no person should have to hear those
words. AIDS can be prevented. Anti-retroviral drugs can extend life for
many years. And the cost of those drugs has dropped from 12,000 dollars a
year to under 300 dollars a year which places a tremendous possibility
within our grasp.

Ladies and gentlemen, seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to
do so much for so many. We have confronted, and will continue to confront,
HIV/AIDS in our own country. And to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad,
tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief a work of mercy beyond
all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This
comprehensive plan will prevent seven million new AIDS infections & treat
at least two million people with life-extending drugs & and provide humane
care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned
by AIDS. I ask the Congress to commit 15 billion dollars over the next five
years, including nearly ten billion dollars in new money, to turn the tide
against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.




www.fightglobalaids.org

Mr. Rene Shen
Student Global AIDS Coalition
539 Kirkland Mail Center
Cambridge, MA 02138.
617-493-0094
617-335-3260
rshen@fas.harvard.edu
aim: shenrene




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