Bush administration approvs new law on five-year extension to PEPFAR

2008-08-05 20:32:34 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Law)

Little Rock, Arkansas (WiredPRNews.com - Legal News ) — It has been reported that the U.S. has extended its global assistance to HIV/AIDS by a term of five years. President George Bush has reportedly signed the new law extending five years of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that was launched in 2003 as a $15 billion, five-year comprehensive approach to be applied for fighting the serious and deadly disease.

The new five-year extension legislation has increased the financial commitment of the country, reportedly consenting to $48 billion from 2009 up to 2013. It is reported to be the greatest commitment so far made by any country in order to fight a disease.

President Bush, at the formal procedure of signing into the new legislation, said that it was a few years back that HIV/AIDS flared out of control. Also, he asserted at the ceremonial that the whole continent had been trapped into the pandemic’s cruel grip and in nations like Botswana, the disease had reduced the average life expectancy by fifteen years.

Adding to the statement, the President asserted that the outlook in contemporary times has changed, and that HIV/AIDS continues to be one of the greatest challenges to mankind around the world. Bush also said that there are no questions on this tough challenge and the administration is making all the efforts of conquering it — with a lot about it to come with PEPFAR.

In 2003, only 50,000 people all over the sub-Saharan region of Africa received anti-retroviral treatments, but PEPFAR has now come to supporti such treatments for about 1.7 million people all over the region including a large number of people from other parts of the world in Asia and reaching to Eastern Europe. The US administration under President Bush had initially required $30 billion to extend the program which had HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) as its main targets.

Wired Government Reporter