Senators Support African AIDS Delegation Call to Save Seven Million Lives through PEPFAR

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

“The removal of language that requires PEPFAR to direct a specific amount of its funds towards lifesaving AIDS care and treatment will cost millions of people their lives”

WHAT:		Press Conference & Teleconference
		US Senators, African Doctors and AIDS Treatment Clients Call for Preservation of AIDS Treatment Requirements in PEPFAR, the Successful US Global AIDS plan
WHEN:		Tuesday, May 13th, 2008, 12:00 noon (Eastern)
WHERE:		Indian Affairs Hearing Room (Russell Building, Room 485)
		Washington, DC
WHO:		United States Senators
		Hon. Tom Coburn, M.D., (R, OK)
		Hon. Richard Burr (R, NC)
		AIDS Healthcare Foundation Officials, African Medical Providers & Treatment Clients
		Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President
		Bernard Okongo, MD, AHF Africa Bureau Chief, Kampala, UGANDA
		Jenny Boyce, Mother & AIDS treatment client, Durban, SOUTH AFRICA
		Fundiswa Doncabe, Mother & AIDS treatment client, Durban, S. AFRICA
		(NOTE: full list of press conference participants follows at end of advisory)
HOW:		In person in Russell 485, or via teleconference--dial in information:
		Domestic: +1.877.411.9748 participant code #7931503
		Int'l: +1.636.651.3128 participant code #7931503

A delegation of doctors and AIDS treatment clients who have traveled to Washington from Africa to speak out firsthand about the importance of lifesaving antiretroviral AIDS treatment will join Senator Tom Coburn, M.D., (R-OK) and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and others at a press conference Tuesday, May 13^th, (12:00 noon, Indian Affairs Hearing Room, Russell Office Building, Room 485) to call for the preservation of a treatment funding priority in PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). PEPFAR is the landmark legislation spearheaded by President Bush that led to the creation of the successful US global AIDS program. The African delegation includes medical providers and AIDS treatment clients from several of AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s (AHF) free clinics in South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda who are in Washington to encourage legislators to ensure that funding for access to medical care and lifesaving antiretroviral treatment remains a priority in PEPFAR.

The current PEPFAR program, set to expire at the end of the year, requires that a minimum of 55% of the funds be spent on care and treatment, a provision that AHF believes has been key to PEPFAR’s success. However, despite a tripling of funds to $50 billion, the reauthorization bills under consideration in Congress, have unfortunately removed a requirement that any money be spent on treatment. The Senators will announce their intention to press for the preservation of the requirement that treatment remain a priority of PEPFAR, and will seek to restore a minimum funding floor for treatment to the bill. The group will also call for a significant increase in PEPFAR’s treatment goals—up only 50% in the re-authorization despite a 330% increase in overall PEPFAR funding.

“The success of the PEPFAR program is largely due directly to the requirement that most of the money be spent on lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment. To eliminate that provision from the reauthorization is to undermine what has been nothing less than a miracle-delivery system. Any HIV/AIDS bill that moves through the Congress must prioritize saving lives,” said Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.

“The removal of language that requires PEPFAR to direct a specific amount of its funds towards lifesaving AIDS care and treatment will cost millions of people their lives,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “While this bill more than triples the original appropriation to $50 billion, it only increases the treatment goal from two million people to three million—less than ten percent of the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide—at a time when many experts believe that as many as ten million of these people are in urgent need of antiretroviral treatment. We strongly urge Congress to revisit and amend this bill to increase the treatment goal to include the additional seven million people needing treatment today and restore the 55% treatment funding floor in order to keep PEPFAR’s focus on providing lifesaving medical care—including the delivery of antiretroviral treatment—to the HIV/AIDS patients served by this landmark US humanitarian effort.”

SOUTH AFRICA

Jenny Boyce, a mother of three from Durban has been on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment at AHF’s Ithembalabantu Clinic (Zulu for ‘people’s hope’) since 2002 and was one of the clinic’s first clients in South Africa. She also traveled to Washington to tell her story to legislators and congressional staffers. “At that time, I had been quite sick, and all I wanted was five more years in order to raise my children. Today, two are college graduates, and my youngest, Dylan, who was eight at the time, has started high school. I would be dead today and my children would be orphans without my having access to treatment. I, however, am one of the lucky ones; there are still so many in South Africa without access to treatment leaving countless orphans behind when they die. I urge all those legislators involved in renewing this important US global AIDS program to please place a priority on treatment in this bill.”

“In 2000, after two years of being in and out of hospitals because of illnesses, I got tested, and I am now a 31 year old woman who is living with HIV,” said Fundiswa Doncabe, of Durban South Africa. “I am one of the fortunate few who have been able to access antiretroviral treatment in South Africa, now through AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s free Ithembalabantu AIDS treatment clinic. ARVs have saved my life and have given me a second chance in life. I can see my future becoming brighter and very positive and that I will be able to raise up my son—now 3 years old, healthy and who has tested negative—because I am well thanks to these lifesaving medications. I would like to thank the providers of PEPFAR funding for such a contribution to our lives, and wish that the funding for HIV care is taken as a first priority because there are many, many people who are still needing treatment as well as the fact that treatment will help in reducing the number of people dying of AIDS.”

“In South Africa, the HIV prevalence nationally is estimated at 31.67%; however, when you consider some of the districts in the country, HIV prevalence may be as high as 50% in some areas, and according to UNAIDS, one in six new HIV infections globally were found in children,” said Njabulo Mabaso, MD, Medical Director, AHF South Africa. “People ask for these figures when they need to make funding or other decisions, and I think it’s fair that we provide them BUT for a healthcare provider like me on the ground in South Africa, statistics lose value when I'm faced with a dying individual in front of me. I speak from the 'humane-based experience' as opposed to the 'figure-based experience' of what the HIV/AIDS epidemic is doing to our people in South Africa. For me, it goes without saying that lifesaving and life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment cannot just be given an insignificant consideration; its central role in a program like PEPFAR has to be demonstrated through the value we attach to human life, that the weight of the funding portion allocated to antiretroviral treatment matches that very same appreciation and valuation we have for every living being on the planet. If we fail to do that, only history will judge us.”

UGANDA

“As a Medical Doctor in Uganda, a country with over 1.1 million people infected with HIV of whom only 120,000 are receiving these life saving medications and over 240,000 who will need ARVs within the next 5 years, this spells doom,” said Bernard Okongo, MD, Africa Bureau Chief, for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “The new PEPFAR bill being worked on only increases the treatment goals by one million people in the next five years, a move that will only create despair and hopelessness where so much hope has been raised.”

“With cumulative numbers of AIDS cases increasing, the socio-economic cost effects will likewise increase. Treatment and care, especially ART, have been shown to be a cost effective measure in mitigation of effects of the epidemic. The huge costs associated with children becoming orphans, disruption of family/community structures essential for social cohesion and economic livelihood are minimized by the provision of ART,” said Mina Nakawuka, MD, Physician and Advocacy Director, AHF/Uganda CARES. “Treatment and care remains a very important HIV/AIDS intervention, and more resources need to be earmarked for this purpose.”

RWANDA

Rose Gahire, Country Program Manager for AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Rwanda, recalls an antiretroviral treatment client’s testimony, “Without treatment I would never have my children grow up happily as they are now.” Gahire added that “By the end of November 2007, 205,727 individuals were estimated to be living with HIV in Rwanda and out of these 97,083 were in need of ART and yet only 46,438 were on ART. This means each progressive year more individuals will need treatment and care, thus the importance of availability of more medications. In 2003 in Rwanda the national AIDS control campaign encouraged people to go for testing because ART was available. The program has been remarkably successful. Therefore, without increasing the vote for treatment and care, all other HIV/AIDS services like testing and prevention efforts would suffer.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation believes that a successful global AIDS bill must include:

• A minimum of 55% of funding allocated to lifesaving treatment, combined with a goal to treat 10 million people by 2013: This requirement will ensure that AIDS treatment gets to all those who are sick while helping prevent the spread of HIV.
• Clear and ambitious HIV diagnosis requirements: Individuals unaware of their HIV status spread the majority of new infections and HIV testing must be scaled up to stop this trend.
• Fiscal accountability: The billions of US dollars being appropriated is enough to meet the treatment needs of those with HIV/AIDS as long as Congress ensures spending is prioritized for core medical services.

PEPFAR was the result of President Bush's groundbreaking 2003 State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment for 1.4 million people worldwide. PEPFAR has been one of the most successful global humanitarian programs in recent memory, providing medical care to millions of people with HIV/AIDS; it has given hope to the 33 million people with HIV/AIDS in the world.

FULL ROSTER OF PRESS CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS:
WHO:		United States Senators
		Hon. Tom Coburn, M.D., (R, OK)
		Hon. Richard Burr (R, NC)
		AIDS Healthcare Foundation Officials, African Medical Providers & Treatment Clients
		Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation President
		Uganda--
		Bernard Okongo, MD, AHF Africa Bureau Chief
		Mina Nakawuka, MD, Physician & Advocacy Director, AHF/Uganda Cares
		South Africa--
		Njabulo Mabaso, MD, Deputy Medical Director, AHF
		Jennifer Boyce (AIDS treatment client)
		Fundiswa Doncabe (AIDS treatment client)
		Thubelihle Shabalala (5 year-old son of Fundiswa)
		Rwanda--
		Rose Gahire, Country Program Coordinator

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation’s largest non-profit HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia. Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org