Washington, D.C. — In his 2007 State of the Union address, United States President George W. Bush urged Congress to increase funding for Aids relief, malaria, and development in Africa.
The president cited as a success his five-year initiative for Aids relief, but called for further action, stating, "We must continue to fight HIV/Aids, especially on the continent of Africa." According to Bush, "the number of people receiving life-saving drugs has grown from 50,000 to more than 800,000 in three short years" with United States aid - the largest commitment by any country to fight a single disease.
Bush recently called for ending discrimination against people living with HIV and Aids. In December 2006, he requested a partial lifting of a 1993 ban on travel into the United States by HIV-positive people and signed legislation providing life-extending care for people who could not otherwise afford treatment.
The Bush administration has increasingly focused on malaria initiatives in Africa, including hosting an international summit on the topic at the White House last December. President Bush called for "$1.2 billion over five years so we can combat malaria in 15 African countries." The new malaria initiative will target programs in Angola, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali and Zambia.
The president's message was welcomed by Eric A. Friedman, senior global health policy advisor at Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group based in Cambridge, MA. "The U.S. campaign against global Aids has saved nearly a million lives--it's a program that Americans can be proud of," Friedman said, adding that a $4.36 billion increase in funding for Aids, TB, and Malaria, currently under debate in Congress, "would save the lives of 110,000 and 170,000 men, women and children."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Bush encouraged humanitarian diplomacy worldwide, saying, "The greatest strength we have is the heroic kindness, courage, and self-sacrifice of the American people. You see this spirit often if you know where to look -- and tonight we need only look above to the gallery."
In the gallery, seated next to First Lady Laura Bush, was NBA basketball player Dikembe Mutombo, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mutombo is well known for his humanitarian efforts in Africa. In 2006, he donated $15 million toward the construction of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital, named for his mother, in Kinshasa. Bush said of Mutombo, "We are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United States of America."
