AIDS foot-dragging (aegis)

AIDS foot-dragging

San Francisco Chronicle - November 19, 2004

http://www.aegis.org/news/sc/2004/SC041106.html
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IN THE war against AIDS, this should be good news: A consortium
of wealthy countries meets in hard-hit Africa to launch programs
to fight the epidemic.

But it's not working as smoothly as that. Foot-dragging by
Washington, by far the biggest check-writer to the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, nearly shut down a long
list of projects.

What's going on is typical of a political sideshow that undercuts
the war on AIDS. The infighting imperils the fragile existence of
dozens of countries depleted by the uphill fight against the
disease. The jockeying also delivers a blow to the image of the
United States, the one country with the money and medicine to
make a difference.

For the record, the White House hasn't ignored AIDS.

President Bush is on track to spend $15 billion on care and
prevention in 15 countries where results can be studied
carefully.

It's a big-budget plan that comes with strings. It relies partly
on a message that abstinence can stem AIDS and a rule that all
drugs used honor American patents. These rules are deal-killers
for some countries that want a free hand to distribute condoms
and cheaper generic drugs made in defiance of U.S. copyright
laws.

Alongside this plan is the Global Fund, founded by the United
Nations, which collects an average of $1 billion a year from rich
countries to distribute in about 120 countries.

Grudgingly, the White House has participated, kicking in the bare
minimum while closely watching to see if it operates efficiently.
As Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson argued at
the fund's meeting in Tanzania this week, the fund should take
extra time to organize and collect more money. Urgent aid must be
balanced with fiscal prudence, he said.

But with African presidents, one by one, pleading for quicker
action, these arguments rang hollow. A backstage compromise was
struck to keep the international fund in business.

The fund will delay but not cancel its next round of grants.
Washington relented, though the level of its financial support
will hinge on what other countries give.

On one level, the result is a tiny victory in a huge war against
AIDS and the divisive rivalries it provokes. It's also a paradigm
for a suspicious American foreign policy that distrusts alliances
and prefers calling all the shots.

But a united front, as with terrorism or any other international
challenge, is the only way to stop AIDS. Nearly 40 million have
died in the last two decades. It kills some 3 million per year,
mostly in southern Africa but now spreading to central Europe and
Asia. India and China, the world's biggest countries, are notably
unprepared and directly in the path of the virus.

Against this backdrop, the competitive feelings on display this
week are inexcusable. Both approaches -- Washington's strict plan
and the wider international effort -- have a place on the AIDS
battlefront. It's time to end a pointless rivalry.

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