WASHINGTON, Jul 26, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- While it has drawn much praise,
U.S. President George Bush's $40 billion effort to fight AIDS overseas contains
an open-ended commitment, observers say.
Bush is expected to sign a bill next week that will authorize $40 billion for
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which includes help
to governments, nonprofits and medical centers to buy drugs and train workers.
But questions are being raised about its implied moral commitment to continue to
supply drugs for foreign AIDS victims who will need the help for the rest of
their lives, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
International health experts point out that once started, AIDS therapy must
continue indefinitely, because stopping it can rapidly lead to death, the
newspaper said, and so ethicists say it would be immoral to ever remove the
financial assistance once it is given.
"We've never really been confronted with this in the international health
arena," Paul De Lay, a physician with UNAIDS, a United Nations program in
Geneva, told the Post.
Some wonder whether the United States can continue to give AIDS help at this
level for the many years it will take to keep recipients alive.
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Copyright 2008 by United Press International