This morning Senator Bill Frist (R – TN) moderated a panel entitled “American Leadership on Global Health” at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The discussion was hosted by ONE.org and focused on the progress made since President Bush approved PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which nearly quadrupled aid to African nations.

One panel member said that while a large number of people are being treated, more are being infected. Everyone was in agreement that the focus needed to be on education for prevention purposes or else treatment would not matter. One mark of success is the expanded focus on other diseases affecting poor nations throughout Africa.

The need for more money to help ailing African countries was also discussed. Syndicated columnist Michael Gerson said, “Americans will be extremely generous when they feel they have an impact.” Sally Canfield, senior program officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation emphasized the importance of contributions from the government as well as the private sector in order to have a successful fight against issues facing poor countries.
The group also discussed the Millennium Challenge Corporation. They discussed the continued need of MCC to challenge some of the poorest countries to work toward their own prosperity. Resources are currently being dispersed among the countries that have reached certain benchmarks, such as passing women’s rights legislation.

The consensus of the panel was that only phase 1 had been completed and it was time to move to the next stage of expanding knowledge and “not creating an Africa that is dependent on US aid, but creating an Africa that is healthy enough to focus on prosperity in business.”

by Holly Jackson

Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Barbara Lee were among twenty-six members of congress named as honorees by the Global AIDS Alliance Fund on Monday for their legislative efforts in fighting the AIDS epidemic.

The event, “Spreading Hope: The Congressional Leadership Awards in the Fight against HIV/AIDS,” ran concurrently with the opening day of the Democratic National Convention.

Although the group said it strives to make the fight against AIDS a bipartisan issue, it favors Sen. Obama’s AIDS strategy, with many at the event referring to Sen. Obama as the next President. Senators Obama and Hillary Clinton were also named as honorees, but were not in attendance.

Moderator David Munar of the AIDS Action Council said, “The drivers for change are coming from the Democratic Party.”

The organization also asked candidates for U.S. Congress to sign a pledge to provide leadership in fighting AIDS domestically and abroad, saying the U.S. needs to devise national AIDS strategy to combat the disease.

Actor Danny Glover, the Chairman of TransAfrica Forum, said “There is a country where a new epidemic, a new infection happens every nine minutes.” Glover continued, “There is a city where one out of 20 people are infected with HIV. That country is the United States and that city is Washington, D.C.”

Glover also said there were serious problems with President George W. Bush’s legislation “President’s Emergency Plan on AIDS Relief” (PEPFAR) approach to fighting global AIDS. The legislation requires that one-third of funds provided to AIDS-infected nations must be used for abstinence-only programs. Glover’s organization, TransAfrica Forum, is an African-American lobbying organization for Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean for AIDS relief funding.

The Global Aids Alliance Fund will also be present at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis next week.

In a special staff report, Andrew Powaleny reports on the AIDS population, the causes and the solutions in Washington DC. (8:14)

 

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At a “Health Affairs” briefing on health in China and India, Kees Kostermans of the World Bank lists some lessons learned from India’s successful attack on its AIDS epidemic. He says that comprehensive data collection, condom marketing, and expansions of testing services for high-risk groups helped India decrease the prevalence of AIDS. (1:17)

 

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“Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere” held a briefing on health in India and China. China faces a massive obesity epidemic and problems with insurance coverage. India is confronting AIDS. And, both China and India have aging populations. (more…)