| January
29, 2003
America
Needs Strong Leadership on AIDS
AIDS
Action calls upon President Bush to speak out, increase HIV/AIDS
funding, and lead America’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic
AIDS
Action applauds President Bush’s commitment to invest a new $10
billion in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Africa and the Caribbean over the next five years.
However, every day in America, approximately 100 people become
infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Tonight President
Bush missed an important opportunity in his State of the Union
Address to detail the specifics of his response to our own domestic
AIDS crisis.
In addition to our efforts on the international
front, President Bush must speak and act in response to our domestic
epidemic. His rhetoric and resolve must reflect the seriousness
of our nation’s HIV epidemic. President Bush’s actions must demonstrate
leadership that is vital to ensuring effective and compassionate
responses from the family, the community, and our nation’s most
cherished institutions. These include our health care system,
our research centers, and our churches.
Federal leadership and support for HIV / AIDS
services is not optional, it is essential. Unfortunately, it appears
as though the domestic epidemic is not an important component
of President Bush’s domestic agenda. For the third year
in a row, his administration has cut or “left level” federal funding
for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs, demonstrating
little understanding of the importance of treatment, care, and
prevention of a disease that last year alone killed more than
three million people worldwide and continues to infect 40,000
people in the United States annually. Tonight’s speech raised
serious concerns that our international response takes priority
over our domestic needs.
The United States, thought by some to be a leader in the global
response to HIV/AIDS, still lacks the infrastructure to test everyone
who should be tested in this country. Unfortunately, because
programs lack the resources to serve the people who have already
been identified as living with, or at risk of, HIV/AIDS, they
obviously lack the necessary resources to provide effective treatment
to those who would learn through the overdue expansion of testing
programs that they are also among the HIV positive.
Across the country, HIV/AIDS programs have been
struggling to offer services to current clients while striving
at the same time to meet the needs of those who have recently
acquired HIV—and, all the while, these programs are getting saddled
with funding cuts. In a number of states, declining
revenues have already forced governors to propose or make cuts
in HIV/AIDS programs. In addition, over 30 states have signaled
growing shortfalls in their state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs
(ADAP) and Medicaid—programs that are essential to low-income
individuals who are living with HIV/AIDS and thus need access
to life-prolonging treatments and care.
Further,
President Bush must commit the resources needed to reach the large
number of individuals in the United States—approximately one-third
of the total number of people who are infected, estimates the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—who have HIV but are
not yet aware of their status.
Moreover, the Bush administration has cut programs
offered by such federal agencies as the Department of Health and
Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
and the U.S. Agency for International Development—programs that
provide HIV/AIDS services domestically and internationally.
On behalf of its community-based member organizations across the
nation, AIDS Action calls on President Bush to lead this United States and the world in a successful effort to prevent
anyone else from acquiring the HIV virus and to provide appropriate
treatment, care, and prevention for all Americans who are living
with HIV/AIDS.
“We
are hopeful that the administration will continue to commit resources
to the international response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic
and we invite President Bush to provide the same kind of leadership
in response to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic,” states Marsha Martin, executive director of AIDS
Action. “The HIV/AIDS crisis in the U.S. is not over,” she reminds.
“On the contrary, the epidemic is spreading rapidly, and the President
and the Congress must act now.”
AIDS
Action strives to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by working for public
policies that promote prevention against new infections, provide
care for people already living with HIV/AIDS, and support the
search for a cure. AIDS Action is the national voice of all people
living with HIV, representing community based organizations across
the country. |
