Investing in Health: Fighting Infectious Disease for Sustainable Development

Purpose of the Initiative: The Bush Administration is committed to advancing the global fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The Administration’s goal is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity. To achieve this aim, this U.S.-led, multi-year initiative will:

• Pursue global partnerships and increase investment in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, especially in countries hardest hit by these three diseases and those with the least resources to cope with them.

• Strengthen surveillance and monitoring, research, prevention, and care activities.

• Expand efforts to combat mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Partners: The United States works with a wide array of partners including: donor and developing governments; international organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; private corporations; foundations; faith-based groups and non-governmental organizations.

Partnership Efforts to Date:

• In June, President Bush announced a $500 million Mother-to-Child HIV Prevention Initiative for Africa and the Caribbean. This initiative will work in partnership with governments and health groups in fourteen countries -- 12 in Africa and two in the Caribbean, plus a Caribbean regional health institution -- to make a real and sustained reduction in the number of children born each year with HIV.

• The U.S. pledge of $500 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria represents approximately one-fourth of all commitments to date. By bringing together a wide array of governments, corporations, and non-governmental organizations, the Global Fund presents an exciting new approach to tackling these three diseases.

• The U.S. Government continues to meet with major multilateral organizations, such as the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and UNICEF, to identify opportunities for collaboration.

• In a unique public-private partnership, the U.S. Government will team with Shell International, UNAIDS, and other stakeholders to predict how HIV/AIDS will progress in Africa and to identify the most effective ways to cooperatively fight the pandemic.

• The U.S. and Japan are exploring joint personnel and training programs to further the fight against tuberculosis.

• The Health, Environment, and Economic Development (HEED) program, an international collaboration to explore the interrelationship among these factors and inform policy, has begun accepting applications for funding.

• The Safe Water System, an inexpensive, simple and effective household-based water quality intervention developed by the CDC and WHO, has been implemented in partnership with NGOs, private sector companies, and ministries of health in 11 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and is scheduled to be launched in Afghanistan early in 2003.