[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
[April 29, 2003]
[Pages 392-395]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative
April 29, 2003

    Thank you all very much for the warm welcome. Welcome to the 
people's house, the White House. It's my honor to welcome Members of the 
United States Senate and the United States Congress, members from the 
ambassadorial corps, and fellow Americans who deeply care about a 
neighbor in need.
    HIV/AIDS is a tragedy for millions of men, women, and children and a 
threat to stability of entire countries and of regions of our world. Our 
nations have the ability and, therefore, the duty to confront this grave 
public health crisis.
    We are here today to urge both Houses of the United States Congress 
to pass the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which will dramatically 
expand our fight against AIDS across this globe.
    I appreciate so very much Secretary of State Colin Powell's commitment to this issue. The fight against AIDS is 
an integral part of our Nation's foreign policy. I appreciate so very 
much Secretary Tommy

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Thompson's dedication to this issue, as 
the chairman of the Global Fund. He knows this administration's passion 
about doing our duty. And I want to thank these members of my Cabinet 
for being here today.
    I also want to thank the chairman and the ranking members of the 
committees responsible for getting this legislation moving. Senator 
Lugar and Senator Biden  
Jr. both committed to this legislation, both working closely 
with our administration to get a good bill out of the Senate. And 
Senator Hyde and Senator Lantos have been at work already, and I appreciate their 
leadership as well. We're honored to have you here, and we're honored to 
have the other Members of the Congress with us today who care deeply 
about this issue.
    I also want to thank Tony Fauci. He 
works for the NIH. He is on the leading edge of finding the vaccines 
that will help those who suffer from AIDS. I love Tony's commitment to 
humans, to what's best for mankind. I'm glad you're here, Tony.
    I also want to thank Joe O'Neill, as the 
Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy. He works closely in my 
administration. I appreciate his advice. I appreciate his counsel.
    I want to thank Gaddi Vasquez, who's 
the Director of the Peace Corps, who is here. We just came from a 
roundtable discussion, and somebody came up with the idea, as this 
initiative goes forward and we get a good piece of legislation out of 
Congress, and when I sign it, hopefully before Memorial Day, one of the 
things we may want to do is to convert some of our Peace Corps to 
helping people in Africa who have got AIDS. So Gaddi, I want you to 
think carefully about that idea.
    I appreciate the ambassadors who are here from the African and 
Caribbean nations. It's good to see you all again. I think the last time 
we saw each other was in black tie. It's a lot better not being in black 
tie. [Laughter]
    I appreciate those who are members of the faith-based world who have 
answered the call, the universal call, to help a brother and sister in 
need. I want to thank you for being involved in the fight against AIDS. 
I want to thank those who have been involved in this struggle for a long 
period of time. I am confident that the progress that you have made to 
date will be progress that we can build upon and will build upon.
    Confronting this tragedy is the responsibility of every nation. For 
the United States, it is a part of the special calling that began with 
our founding. We believe in the dignity of life, and this conviction 
determines our conduct around the world. We believe that everyone has a 
right to liberty, including the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. We 
believe that everyone has a right to life, including children in the 
cities and villages of Africa and the Caribbean.
    Today, on the continent of Africa alone, nearly 30 million people 
are living with HIV/AIDS, including 3 million people under the age of 15 
years old. In Botswana, nearly 40 percent of the adult population--40 
percent--has HIV, and projected life expectancy has fallen by more than 
30 years due to AIDS. In seven sub-Sahara African countries, mortality 
for children under age 5 has increased by 20 to 40 percent because of 
AIDS.
    There are only two possible responses to suffering on this scale. We 
can turn our eyes away in resignation and despair, or we can take 
decisive, historic action to turn the tide against this disease and give 
the hope of life to millions who need our help now. The United States of 
America chooses the path of action and the path of hope.
    Since January 2001, America has increased total spending to fight 
AIDS overseas by nearly 100 percent. We've already pledged more than 
$1.6 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and other infectious 
diseases. It is by far the most of any nation in the world today. And 
last year, I launched an initiative to help prevent the transmission of 
HIV from mothers to children in Africa and the Caribbean.

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    These are vital efforts, and they're important efforts. But we must 
do far more. So in January, I asked the House and the Senate to enact 
the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. With the approval of Congress, this 
plan will direct $15 billion to fight AIDS abroad over the next 5 years, 
beginning with $2 billion in 2004. We will create comprehensive systems 
to diagnose, to treat and to prevent AIDS in 14 African and Caribbean 
countries where the disease is heavily concentrated. We won't diminish 
our other efforts that are now ongoing. We will continue the funding 
that is in place, but we'll focus intensely on 14 ravaged countries to 
show the world what is possible.
    This is a terrible disease, but it is not a hopeless disease. At 
this moment, in nations around the world, governments and health 
officials, doctors and nurses, people living with the virus are proving 
that there is hope and that lives can be saved.
    We know that AIDS can be prevented. In Uganda--Madame 
Ambassador, thank you for being here--
President Museveni Kugata has begun a 
comprehensive program in 1986 with a prevention strategy emphasizing 
abstinence and marital fidelity as well as condoms to prevent HIV 
transmission. The results are encouraging. The AIDS infection rate in 
Uganda has fallen dramatically since 1990. And in places throughout the 
country, the percentage of pregnant women with HIV has been cut in half. 
Congress should make the Ugandan approach the model for our prevention 
efforts under the Emergency Plan.
    We also know that AIDS can be treated. Anti-retroviral drugs have 
become much more affordable in many nations, and they are extending many 
lives. In Africa, as more AIDS patients take these drugs, doctors are 
witnessing what they call the Lazarus effect when one patient is rescued 
by medicine, as if back from the dead. Many others with AIDS seek 
testing and treatment, because it is the first sign of hope they have 
ever seen.
    Many past international efforts to fight AIDS focused on a 
prevention at the expense of treatment. But people with this disease 
cannot be written off as expendable. Integrating care and treatment with 
prevention is the cornerstone of my Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and 
we know it works.
    In Haiti, for example, the GHESKIO clinic--where are you, Jean;* there you are; thank you for coming--the director 
of which is here with us today, is providing care to 5,000 people with 
HIV. His report was optimistic about what is possible. He should be 
speaking up here, and not me, about success. He says in spite of 
miserable conditions in Haiti, he is optimistic that with the right 
strategy and the right approach, we can save lives. And I appreciate you 
coming, sir.
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    *White House correction.
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    In Uganda's capital, a clinical research center is providing anti-
retroviral therapy to 6,000 patients with HIV. Health care workers from 
other centers in Uganda travel by truck and by motorcycle to rural 
villages and farms a few times each week, delivering critical medicine 
to patients who cannot reach the city for treatment.
    These are successful strategies and must be brought to a much larger 
scale. We've seen what works. I'm asking Congress to appropriate monies 
so we can expand what works to save lives.
    In sub-Sahara Africa, just 1 percent of the more than 4 million 
people needing immediate drug treatment are receiving medicine. That's 
about 50,000 people. The Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is designed to 
put major resources behind proven methods of care and treatment and 
prevention and multiply these goods--good works many times over.
    That's what we're going to do. The resources will be managed 
carefully, with flexibility, by a new global AIDS coordinator. And this 
coordinator will help us utilize and further develop successful clinical

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networks. These networks link urban medical centers, staffed by 
specialist physicians and nurses, with rural clinics where HIV tests can 
be performed and medications distributed.
    And because so much of the health care in sub-Sahara Africa is 
provided by facilities associated with churches and religious orders, we 
must ensure that the legislation provides the greatest opportunity for 
faith-based and community organizations to fully participate in helping 
a neighbor in need.
    Our experts believe that the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will, in 
this decade, prevent 7 million new HIV infections, treat at least 2 
million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for 
millions of people suffering from AIDS and, as importantly, for children 
orphaned by AIDS.
    Confronting the threat of AIDS is important work, and it is urgent 
work. It is a moral imperative for our great Nation. In the 3 months 
since I announced the Emergency Plan, an estimated 760,000 people have 
died from AIDS, 1.2 million people have been infected, more than 175,000 
babies have been born with the virus. Time is not on our side.
    So I ask Congress to move forward with speed and seriousness this 
crisis requires. But Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States cannot 
succeed by ourselves. I urge all nations and will continue to urge all 
nations to join with us in this great effort.
    Fighting AIDS on a global scale is a massive and complicated 
undertaking. Yet, this cause is rooted in the simplest of moral duties. 
When we see this kind of preventable suffering, when we see a plague 
leaving graves and orphans across a continent, we must act. When we see 
the wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not--America will 
not pass to the other side of the road.
    Thank you all. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 2:08 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Representatives Henry J. Hyde of 
Illinois and Tom Lantos of California; President Yoweri Kugata Museveni 
and Ambassador to the U.S. Edith Grace Ssempala of Uganda; and Jean W. 
Pape, director, Haitian Study Group on Kaposi's Sarcoma and 
Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO).