Global HIV/AIDS and ONE's Policy Plan
How would your Administration build on existing U.S. efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS crisis? |
HIV/AIDS killed 2.1 million people in 2007 and another 2.5 million were infected with the HIV virus. It is decimating a generation of teachers, doctors, civil servants and more importantly - parents. There are currently 11.4 million children that have been orphaned because of AIDS in Africa. This disease is a moral, health and economic crisis. Our successes over the past few years show that we can fight back. We have successfully expanded access to treatment, but still over 70% of those in need do not have access and even as these individuals are placed on treatment, still the epidemic continues to spread. Our health is only as assured as the ability of the poorest country to contain an emerging disease. United States' investment is critical and it can - and has already - worked.
Evidence for Action
Strains the provision of basic services: HIV/AIDS is placing increasing demands on public services, such as health, education and public administration.
- The communities most adversely affected have weak health care systems that are understaffed and ill-equipped to care for the growing number of HIV/AIDS patients. Africa is home to 69% of those requiring ARV treatment but only 1.8% of the global health care workers to provide it.
- HIV/AIDS is also a major global constraint on the provision of good-quality education. For example, Tanzania needs around 45,000 additional teachers to make up for those who have died or left the system because of AIDS - many were their most experienced teachers.
Challenges security and social dynamic: Mozambique has trouble recruiting and training enough police officers to replace those dying of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. By 2010, nearly one in five South African children will be orphans contributing to an already deeply challenged social dynamic.
Slows economic growth: Because HIV/AIDS most frequently strikes adults in the prime of their working years, HIV poses a threat to economic growth and development. Some estimates suggest that annual GDP growth rates in highly affected countries can be 2-4% lower than in the absence of AIDS. In 2002, President Yoweri Musevini of Uganda announced that HIV/AIDS and malaria cost his country more than one-sixth of its GDP.
Status on Acheiving Our Goals
The United States’ recent bilateral HIV/AIDS efforts have supported therapy for nearly 1.1 million adults and children, HIV counseling and testing for nearly 19 million people, services to prevent mother-to-child-transmission for more than 6 million women, education and information campaigns estimated to have reached more than 140 million adults and children, and care and support services for approximately 4.5 million adults, orphans and other vulnerable children. Through our contributions to the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tb, and Malaria (GFATM) the United States has helped to put 770,000 people on ARV therapy and provided 9.4 million people with HIV counseling and testing.
HIV/AIDS: Increasing our Commitment, Protecting our Future:
Thanks in large part to the United States, total donor aid for HIV/AIDS was $8.9 billion in 2006, but the gap remains. Estimates of the global price tag for fighting HIV/AIDS will reach $22 billion by 2008. The United States should build on its leadership role on HIV/AIDS and commit at least our proportionate share, at least $7 billion in 2008, to fight HIV/AIDS so that effective interventions can continue to work to stop this pandemic. Our commitment to fight HIV/AIDS should include: increased and sustainable funding for the Global Fund, a commitment to support children left orphans or vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, a commitment to increase support for vaccines, new drugs and diagnostics to fight the disease, a redoubling of our prevention efforts, and an effort to focus on the capacity constraints faced by countries implementing HIV/AIDS programs. This is a choice in Washington we have to make to fight to save lives and promote stability in some of the world's most unstable areas.
Other issues: HIV/AIDS | Malaria | Primary Education | Child Health | Maternal Health | Clean Water and Food
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Key Facts
- AIDS is decimating the civil society of poor nations around the world impacting the health, economic growth, and stability of entire countries. Our health and our security are only as assured as the ability of the poorest country to contain an emerging disease or maintain stability within their borders.
- On just the continent of Africa, there are currently 11.4 million children that have been orphaned because of AIDS and the disease continues to target women and children most harshly. We know how to prevent and treat this disease. In the face of such devastation, inaction is not an option.
- The United States has been the global leader in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic and should be proud of what it has accomplished. The challenge is still great as AIDS continues to spread at an alarming rate.
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