This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
President Bush has announced a new program to help fight AIDS andthe H-I-V virus that causes it. If approved by Congress, the planwill provide fifteen-thousand-million dollars over the next fiveyears. The money will pay for AIDS drugs, education, doctors andspecial laboratories. Most of the money will be spent in fourteencountries that have about fifty percent of all H-I-V and AIDS casesaround the world.
Twelve of the nations are in Africa. They are Botswana, IvoryCoast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, SouthAfrica, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The plan will also include AIDSprojects in Haiti and Guyana in the Caribbean.
The World Health Organization estimates that forty-two-millionpeople are infected with H-I-V or AIDS around the world. Seventypercent of the victims are in southern Africa.
President Bush announced the program during his State of theUnion message in January. The plan is designed to provide drugs fortwo-million AIDS patients. It will provide care for ten-millionpatients and for children whose parents died from the disease. Itwill also support education efforts to help stop the disease fromspreading.
Administration officials say half of the fifteen-thousand-milliondollars will be used for treatment. One-third will be spent onprevention. This includes programs to teach people about the use ofprotective condoms during sex. The remaining money will be used tocare for patients.
Some AIDS activists criticized the president’s plan. They say theplan does not include countries where AIDS is spreading quickly,such as China and India.
Other people criticized the plan for not working more closelywith international groups, such as the United Nations Global Fund toFight AIDS. The goal of this organization is to guarantee that moneyfrom rich countries is used to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.Under the Bush plan, the Global Fund would receive only aboutone-thousand-million dollars.
White House officials say President Bush wants to give moneydirectly to countries that are best prepared to develop largeprevention, care and treatment programs quickly. They say thePresident’s plan is a major change in policy for the Administrationand an important step in the right direction.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.