Article: HIV/AIDS Official Describes U.S. Partnership Initiatives

11 June 2001

Article: HIV/AIDS Official Describes U.S. Partnership Initiatives

Nancy Carter-Foster speaks on "Dialogue"

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington - The Bush administration has gotten a good start helping Africans battle the killer disease HIV/AIDS and plans even more partnership initiatives down the road, says Nancy Carter-Foster, director of the State Department's Office of Emerging Infectious Diseases and HIV/AIDS.

The official spoke to an audience June 8 in Nairobi on the interview program "Dialogue," which is a part of the U.S. State Department's Office of Broadcast Services.

The program preceded the HIV/AIDS United Nations meeting in New York City June 25th to 27th called to raise global awareness about the AIDS pandemic, and to create a global strategy to fight the disease. HIV/AIDS has affected 36 million people all over the world -- 25.3 million of whom are in Africa.

Carter-Foster said "The Bush administration has been providing a good deal of global leadership in fighting HIV/AIDS. This year the U.S. is providing $466 million to fight HIV/AIDS worldwide, largely through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and the Department of Labor."

In addition, she pointed out that "through our National Institutes of Health we provide $2,200 million for research on HIV/AIDS, including research into a vaccine for the prevention of the disease; $100 million of this amount is specifically designated for international research for HIV/AIDS vaccines."

She added that the U.S. government "is really providing about 50 percent of all the international assistance worldwide that is available for HIV/AIDS. And on May 11th of this year President Bush announced an additional contribution of $200 million towards the global trust fund for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

The official told the African audience that "we think that the commitment of $200 million in seed funding that President Bush committed on May 11th is a very good start, and the U.S. has taken a leadership role in stepping out to be first to make that kind of a commitment."

Carter-Foster was quick to add "we don't in any way see that as the totality of our commitment. We would expect that we will continue to provide additional resources. But at the time that the president made the announcement, he also mentioned the importance of having other governments step up and also make similar commitments to the fund as well. And he also underscored the importance of the private sector, to have the involvement of foundations, of companies and individuals, because this is a fight that everyone must become engaged in.

"So we expect that our $200 million in seed money, which has also been the beginning of some announcements by other governments as well, will also result in at least a billion dollars ($1,000 million) and possibly more as we see the private sector and other governments also step up to do their share," Carter-Foster explained.

She stressed that "clearly there are reasons for hope. The international community is pulling together to fight this disease in ways that were done similarly for polio and smallpox, diseases that we were able to bring concerted action to overcome, and in one case to eradicate."

For example, she pointed out that "Uganda was able to reduce the rates of new infections by 50 percent -- mostly by talking about it, by having the young women reduce or delay their first encounter, sexual encounter by two years. And those two years made the difference of reducing infection rates by 50 percent. That's a lot of lives to be saved, a lot of young lives, and that's what is so important here, that it doesn't take a lot of money -- it just takes action to reduce the rate of infection for these diseases."

Asked what were the key components to the U.S. effort, she said, "We feel that prevention is the primary focus, or should be the primary focus of these programs, because it's the most cost effective, and is the only way to ensure that the disease is not transmitted."

The official added that the partnerships with foreign countries also involved "helping to train medical personnel, physicians, health care workers, nurses so that they can better know what to do for persons who are living with AIDS, and also to help to provide that knowledge to individuals so that they can protect their own health."

Asked how Americans coped with workplace discrimination against the victims of AIDS, Carter-Foster said "people with AIDS, and with HIV infection rather, can still work, and be productive, especially if they are treated for the opportunistic infections that occur as a result of the diseases."

She explained that "what we do here and what we do with our workplace intervention programs overseas is to work with employers and to work with the labor sector to help them better understand what it is to live with HIV and what can be done."

Responding to a question about whom the partners are that the U.S. government works with, the official said "I can tell you that 70 percent of the funds that USAID expends overseas are spent working through non-governmental organization at the grass-roots level, because we recognize that is a very important area in which we must work with people to address AIDS."

At the same time, Carter-Foster said "we clearly must also engage governments because the political leadership is crucial to having the priorities and the national resources that are required to fight this disease also be devoted appropriately. So we try to work at every level of government."

With respect to the pharmaceutical companies, she said "we are continually engaged in discussions with them to be good partners in the fight against AIDS as well, and to do their share to work with governments and to work with individuals, companies and NGOs, with all other members of the fight against AIDS, to try to best address the situation at hand. Those particular discussions we cannot be a part of for every single entity, but we certainly do encourage the companies to do what they can."