AS BUSH MEETS AFRICAN PRESIDENTS, ACTIVISTS DEMAND REAL MONEY TO COMBAT AIDS
"Actions Are Louder Than Words, Mr. President, the Money Given to
Date Sends the Message Loud and Clear: 'People with AIDS in Africa:
Drop Dead'"

As President Bush meets today with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos
Santos, Mozambique President Joaquim Alberto Chissano and Botswana
President Fetus Gontebanye Mogae, AIDS activists in the Health GAP
Coalition accused the U.S. president of talking about the global
HIV/AIDS pandemic, but failing to take meaningful action.

"The world is witnessing what may be the worst and deadliest pandemic
in history," said Paul Davis of Health GAP. "While UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan has called for a commensurate response -- a global
fund allocating $10 billion a year -- the president of the world's
sole superpower has shamefully proposed spending a paltry $200
million."

President Bush's budget proposal proposes a $200 million allocation
to the UN's Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"Instead, Bush is in effect cutting the Global AIDS Fund off at its
knees," continued Davis, "effectively bankrupting the Fund in its
first year."

"Eight thousand people will die today of causes related to HIV/AIDS.
Eight thousand more will die tomorrow, and the day after, and the day
after," said Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP. "And while President Bush
and his administration continue to talk, the death toll will continue
to mount -- tragically and avoidably -- at increasing rates. It's
past time to move beyond talk to action. We have treatments available
that can save millions of lives, and abundant evidence that those
treatments can be delivered effectively in poor countries. What we
don't have is the money needed to buy drugs and deliver treatment."

UNAIDS estimates that 50 million people worldwide are HIV-positive,
about half of them in Africa and the vast majority in poor countries.
While treatment enables many HIV-positive people in rich countries to
survive, an HIV infection is a death sentence for the vast majority
in poor countries, where the cost of treatment is out of reach for
all but a lucky few.

According to UNAIDS, the rate of infection, in 1999, in Botswana was
over 35 percent, over 13 percent in Mozambique and nearly 3 percent
in Angola.

"If President Bush were to speak honestly today," said Rob Weissman
of Health GAP, :'Your people's lives,' he would say, 'aren't worth
what we pay for a cup of coffee. And so we're giving to the Global
Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria less than the cost of a cup
of coffee for each of our citizens."

"Today is day for Americans to bow their heads in shame and mourning.
Mourning for the 8000 people who die from AIDS-related causes every
day -- though we have the medicines to treat them -- and shame
because the U.S. government refuses to spend more on the Global Fund
for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria than the cost of a single fighter
jet," said Asia Russell of Health GAP.

According to economists at Harvard University, treatment could be
provided to people with AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa at costs of
$500-$1,000 per person. 99 legislators signed a letter to President
Bush requesting at least $1 billion dollars to the Global Fund and
many legislators were seeking $1.2 billion.

"Basically, what it comes down to is a billion dollar shortfall means
a million deaths," said Allison Dinsmore of Health GAP.

HEALTH GAP DEMANDS:

-- For Fiscal Year 2002: An "emergency supplemental" by MAY DAY 2002
for $700 million to bring the total contribution to the Global Fund
to $1 billion.

-- For Fiscal Year 2003: Get $2.5 billion to fight Global AIDS--where
at least half goes to the Global Fund and half for U.S. bilateral
programs such as the CDC and USAID.

--
Sharonann Lynch
[email protected]
ACT UP New York
Health GAP (Global Access Project)