It is being reported that a US House Committee has passed a huge expansion to a Global AIDS Fund created by President Bush to help the millions of people living around the world with HIV.
Under the new addition to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, 50 billion dollars will be spent over the next 5 years to better the treatment for people living with AIDS, provide better education to protect people from contracting the virus, and to look out for kids whose parents have died from it.
Furthermore, spending on abstinence program policies were also addressed and were a key component to the successful passing of the new proposed spending.
“This historic agreement will save millions of lives,” said Paul Zeitz, a physician who heads the Global AIDS Alliance, a vocal critic of some original PEPFAR provisions. “With bipartisan support, Congress is beginning to fix aspects of the AIDS program that were clearly not working.”
Since tuberculosis and malaria play a contributing factor to Africa’s HIV/AIDS crisis, 9 billion dollars will go towards programs to reduce these diseases also.
The bill must be passed by the Senate before being signed into play by the President.
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