AHF condemns budget move by House Republicans for global AIDS programs

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which provides AIDS medical care and services to more than 152,000 individuals in 26 countries worldwide, today strongly condemned a move by House Republicans, who on Friday proposed slashing President Obama's 2011 funding for global AIDS programs by $813 million. The Republican action (affecting last year's budget, not the FY 2012 budget released Monday), if successful, would cut $450 million from the US' contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as $363 million from additional bilateral programs including George W. Bush's landmark President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the successful US global AIDS program. PEPFAR claims 3.2 million people with HIV/AIDS are currently on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment as a result of its programs around the world. These Republican funding cuts represent at least 1.8 million lives that would be lost, based on PEPFAR's per patient treatment cost of approximately $436 per patient, per year.

"This budget move by House Republicans would eviscerate the signature favorable achievement of the Bush administration, representing 1.8 million lives lost," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Both President Bush and the Obama Administration have emphasized the importance of global health to national security, an issue that should ordinarily generate widespread bipartisan support. These shortsighted cuts represent a historic retreat in the United States' commitment on AIDS, and if enacted, could also have far wider negative national security consequences. We implore House Republicans to reconsider the elimination of these potentially lifesaving funds."

In a World AIDS Day opinion piece on the topic of global AIDS and PEPFAR that was published in the 'Washington Post' on December 1, 2010, former President George W. Bush noted, "…no national security strategy is complete in the long run without promoting global health, political freedom and economic progress." He added, "I firmly believe it (PEPFAR) has served American interests to help prevent the collapse of portions of the African continent…In the meantime, there are millions on treatment who cannot be abandoned. And the progress in many African nations depends on the realistic hope of new patients gaining access to treatment. Why get tested if AIDS drugs are restricted to current patients? On AIDS, to stand still is to lose ground."

Bush summed up stating, "…I can offer some friendly advice to members of Congress, new and old…the continuing fight against global AIDS is something for which America will be remembered."

"Cutting our commitment on global AIDS is to turn our backs on these people in need," added AHF's Weinstein. "How are they supposed to trust us and deal with us going forward when we are just walking away? In lives lost, this will certainly hurt them, but it will also tarnish and jeopardize our interests for years to come."