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US to increase HIV/Aids funding to 39tr/-
2007-08-25 09:29:36
By Jane Mkonya
US President George Bush is keen to have the President`s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) extended for five more years and the partnership’s funding increased to 39tr/-.
Speaking during the inauguration of a new care and treatment centre for HIV/Aids at the Mwananyamala Hospital in Dar es Salaam yesterday, US Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said the proposal would need Congress approval.
He said the second phase of the partnership would seek to provide treatment for 2.5 million people, prevent more than 12 million new infections and provide care to more than 12 million people, including 5million orphans and vulnerable children.
The emergency plan, which President Bush proposed in 2003, is the largest international health initiative in history dedicated to a single disease by scaling up prevention, treatment and care in developing countries.
The US Congress supported the programme`s first years by committing over 19.5tr/- for its implementation.
According to Leavist, only 50,000 people in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS when President Bush proposed the plan.
“Today America is supporting treatment for 1.1 million people in 15 focus countries, and more than a million of these people are in Africa,” he noted.
He pointed out that the Mwananyamala centre would use modern technology that would lead to faster and more reliable service delivery while also being more confidential than the one previously in use.
“This technology simplifies the screening exercise. All that the test demands is a small sample of blood from one’s finger much like the one used to test for malaria and one is assured of receiving one’s results a few minutes later,” explained Leavitt.
He said the new technology would encourage more people to undergo HIV/Aids testing, thus helping the national voluntary testing campaign inaugurated by President Jakaya Kikwete produce the desired results.
In line with that, he appealed to the government of Tanzania to use the modern technology to make the voluntary HIV/Aids test campaign succeed.
Noting that reducing the rate of infections and treating those already infected with the deadly virus were daunting challenges, Leavitt said: “There is a need for more clinics, training more health workers and increasing the availability of anti-retroviral drugs. There is also a need to find new ARVs, especially for children.”
“These need sustained investments and that’s where President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) comes in,” he added.
Leavitt underscored the need for the joint involvement of the government, civil society groups, religious leaders, business people and ordinary citizens in efforts to contain the pandemic.
“I have already seen some important lessons being applied. Doctors and nurses do not have to perform much of the care AIDS patients need.
Other health workers can undergo training for those tasks - at much less cost. I am pleased to see this new approach planned for your new clinic,” he observed.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador Michael Retzer said his government would continue to work closely with Tanzania and other partners in the war against the killer disease.
“The most important step is to get tested for HIV. A tremendous motivator for testing is knowing that treatment is available through facilities like this one.
We are proud to stand with President Jakaya Kikwete in encouraging every Tanzanian to know his or her HIV status,” he said.
In his remarks at the function, Health and Social Welfare minister David Mwakyusa said recent data on the national voluntary HIV/Aids campaign show that there are 1.3 million people living with HIV in Tanzania.
“The infection rate is about 7.7 per cent while, of those infected, only about one in ten are enrolled in anti-retroviral treatment,” explained the professor, adding that stigmatisation remains widespread and made many people refrain from undergoing HIV/Aids testing.
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