US Congress Told: Give Pounds 15bn for Aids

President George Bush yesterday urged Congress to authorise an additional pounds 15 billion to fight Aids in Africa over five years, double the current US commitment.

The money would provide treatment for 2.5 million people under the President’s Emergency Programme for Aids Relief, Bush claimed.

The programme has supported treatment for 1.1 million people in 15 countries, including more than 1 million in Africa, he claimed. The programme’s original five-year mandate, which called for spending pounds 7.5 billion, expires in September 2008, and Bush asked Congress to renew it.

"When I took office, an HIV diagnosis in Africa’s poorest communities was usually a death sentence. Parents watched their babies die needlessly because local clinics lacked effective treatments," Bush said.

"Once again, the generosity of the American people is one of the great untold stories of our time."

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the goals for the next five years – Bush leaves office on January 20, 2009 – are to treat 2.5 million people, prevent more than 12 million new infections and care for more than 12 million people, including five million orphans and children.

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