Congresswoman Lee critical
of new federal AIDS report

From the Globe Political Desk

Release of the second annual President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has drawn a sharp reaction from Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
    Lee was a co-author of the bipartisan legislation that established the report, which designated $15 billion for the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
    She also co-authored the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act of 2000, which established the framework for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. To date, the Global Fund has committed $4.4 billion in 128 countries to support aggressive disease interventions.
   “While this report shows some advances, the rate of progress is inadequate to meet either the needs for treatment and prevention or the commitment we set out in creating PEPFAR, and the sense of urgency is missing,” said Lee.
   “In writing the legislation to create PEPFAR in 2003, we set a target of providing treatment for 1 million people by the end of fiscal year 2005. At 471,000, we are clearly behind schedule, and with 5 million people newly infected just this year, we are facing an uphill battle that will only get worse if we do not dramatically increase our commitment.
   “To date we have not received any information from PEPFAR evaluating the effectiveness of our prevention messages. How do we know that people who are taught the ABC method are following through? How do we know whether one approach works better than any other? Are people who are taught abstinence actually remaining abstinent? What happens when they become sexually active? Do they tend to use condoms if they were only taught abstinence? This kind of information will help ground our programs in sound science and in the end will improve performance towards attaining our goals.
   “I remain strongly concerned about the administration’s emphasis on abstinenceonly- until marriage programs as the primary method of HIV prevention. In many countries with large sexually active populations, widespread testing is unavailable. In such an environment promoting a strict abstinence- only message without providing information about risk reduction activities such as condom use is irresponsible.
   “Our HIV prevention policies should not be based in ideology. We need a comprehensive and balanced prevention approach that does not deny people information that could save their lives.
   ” Children represent approximately 15 percent of all people infected with HIV/AIDS, said Lee. In many cases they are hard to diagnose and hard to treat. “We need to do better at reaching these children,” she said.
   “Currently children represent only 7 percent of people receiving antiretroviral treatment at sites reporting age. At the very least our treatment programs should aim to reflect the global infection rate and provide at least 15 percent of antiretroviral treatment to children.
   “Similarly 15 million children have been orphaned and made vulnerable due to AIDS. While PEPFAR is working to provide basic care services to some of these children we must ensure that our programs provide comprehensive services.
   “That’s why I authored and passed legislation last year to specifically focus U.S. government programs on providing a range of care, treatment and support activities for orphans and vulnerable children, including basic care, increased primary school enrollment, employment opportunities, school feeding, support for property and inheritance rights, psychosocial support and HIV treatment.”