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Africa Group lauds PEPFAR
improvement, calls for more action |
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ADDIS
ABEBA(July 21,2008) -
Following the U.S. Senate's vote to reauthorize the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with an overwhelming 80-16
majority this week, a US based organization working on African affairs
said it commended the Move by USA Senate.
Africa Action particularly hailed global health activists and leaders
in the Senate who it said overcame a series of last-minute objections
to get the bill passed.
Africa Action also noted that more still needs to be done to address
the AIDS crisis in Africa.
"This bill is a tremendous improvement over the previous U.S.
global HIV/AIDS initiative", Michael Swigert, Associate Director
for Policy and Communications at the organization, said in a statement
issued on Sunday.
He said the bill authorizes a more sustainable and holistic approach
to the crisis by expanding efforts to train health care workers and
address malaria and tuberculosis, the biggest infectious killer of
people living with HIV.
Africa Action said the bill also increases the program's emphasis
on women, who bear the "brunt of the AIDS burden" in Africa.
Most importantly, the group said the bill also repeals the disgraceful
law that restricts the entrance of people living with HIV to the United
States.
"More work is needed, however, to improve U.S. global HIV prevention
policies. This legislation fails to integrate family planning with
HIV programs, which public health experts agree is most effective,"
it said.
"The bill also reduces, but does not fully remove, ideologically
driven restrictions on comprehensive, evidence-driven prevention programs."
While the most recent UNAIDS statistics indicated that worldwide,
HIV prevalence appears to be leveling off, sub-Saharan Africa remains
the pandemic's epicenter, according to Africa Action.
It said there were 1.7 million new infections in the region in 2007.
"AIDS is still the single greatest cause of death in Africa,
where more than two-thirds of all people living with HIV live and
over three-quarters of global AIDS-related deaths took place in 2007,"said
the group.
"This is due both to a lack of accessible treatment and to the
weak overall health care infrastructure of African countries,"
it added. |
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