Alarming HIV Rates in African Militaries Could Undermine Peacekeeping

[LauraK]

WASHINGTON, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Another day has passed during President Bush's stay in Africa, where AIDS kills 6800 people a day, but the President has yet to make good on his pledge to deliver emergency assistance to the continent. <cut

The President talks of a $15 billion, 5-year plan, but budgets in the US are decided on a yearly basis and the funding (much of it after Bush's first term) is far from secure. The total figure is exaggerated by including all existing spending as well as spending on malaria, Tb and research programs. The key test of an emergency plan is what it delivers right away, yet the President's budget remains at only half of the $3 billion promised in the Global AIDS legislation that passed Congress in May.

In recent days the President has stated his intention to support a peaceful transition in Liberia, yet plans to deploy peacekeeping forces in Liberia could be complicated by the AIDS epidemic. Potential African peacekeeping troops would likely have a high degree of HIV infection in their ranks. The startling rates of HIV across Africa and in the military have not been touched by the President's initiative.
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