U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as the Senate majority leader, is the last hope for millions of Africans suffering from HIV/AIDS, said AIDS activists visiting The University of Tennessee Tuesday.
“He’s our last hope (to increase contributions) to a fair share to where it ought to be,” said David Bryden, communications director for Global AIDS Alliance, a nonprofit organization devoted to raising political and financial capital to combat the global AIDS pandemic.
Bryden said the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is in jeopardy because of a lack of funding from the United States.
“(In 2005) all other donors have done their part, and now we’re waiting on the United States,” he said.
The fund was established in 2001 at the urging of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Its mission is to raise money to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, three diseases that have ravaged the developing world, according to the organization’s Web site.
“The main reason we chose Tennessee is because of Sen. Frist,” Bryden said. “Sen. Frist is the number one decision maker on this.”
Frist, he said, has been a champion of AIDS research and prevention in the past and the Global AIDS Alliance is asking the public to participate in the Nov. 9 National Call-In Day to Frist to encourage his support for U.S. contributions to the fund.
Traveling to the university with Bryden was Milly Katana, lobbying and advocacy officer for Health Rights Action Group and experienced AIDS activist. Katana contracted HIV when she was 18 years old as she was finishing high school in Uganda.
Katana spoke about the fund’s accomplishments so far.
“Since its inception, it has been able to attract $5 billion,” she said. “The fund is due to make a sixth series of donations later this year,” she said, but “It has run out of money.”
Katana said the current lack of funding is a result of not enough emphasis on AIDS treatment and prevention in developing countries.
“It’s a matter of priority setting,” she said. From her perspective, Katana said, AIDS is the greatest challenge facing developing countries today.
“HIV is a crisis that is threatening Africa,” she said, but warned that Asia and Europe will be the next hotspots of the AIDS epidemic.
Bryden said that the U.S. promised to contribute one-third of the fund’s budget if the rest of the donor nations contributed the remaining two-thirds of it. However, the U.S. seems to be begging off the promise, he said.
Katana said that she hoped to raise awareness of AIDS in the college and Knoxville community.
“The most important thing is to raise the profile of HIV/AIDS in Africa,” she said.
There is hope, she said, for AIDS patients living in Africa and around the world.
“It’s not all grim, we can do something to help, to prevent it.”
