AHF Supports Obama's Call for More AIDS Drugs for Poor Patients

Call Comes as Senate Considers PEPFAR Global AIDS Bill with No
Treatment Funding Requirement
WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which provides AIDS medical care
to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries worldwide, today
supported Senator Barak Obama's call for more widespread availability
of AIDS drugs for poor patients, a call he made Sunday evening during
CNN's 'Compassion Forum,' a televised conversation on faith and
politics at Messiah College in Grantham, PA. In response to a question
on the role of abstinence in HIV prevention from Dr. Frank Page, a
minister who cited his own church's role in the fight against HIV/AIDS
in Uganda in "True Love Waits," an abstinence-only program, Senator
Obama stated: "I also think that contraception is important; I also
think that treatment is important; I also think that we have to do
more to make antiviral drugs available to people who are in extreme
poverty."

Obama's call comes at the same time the Senate is considering a
bill to reauthorize PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief), the successful US global AIDS program initially spearheaded
by President Bush. The current Senate and House versions of the bill
wending their way through Congress have unfortunately removed
requirements that any PEPFAR funds actually be spent on lifesaving
treatment, despite the fact that Congress is tripling the funding for
PEPFAR to $50 billion over the next five years up from its initial $15
billion, five year commitment.

"We support Senator Obama's call to make lifesaving AIDS treatment
more widely available to poor people and those in need and we also
strongly urge him to support an amendment to the PEPFAR bill to
preserve the requirement that a certain percentage of the funding is
actually targeted to such lifesaving treatment. AHF would like to see
that 55% of the funding goes toward care and treatment, as current law
requires," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare
Foundation. "The Senate version of the reauthorization bill has
removed this critical funding requirement despite the fact that the
bill more than triples the original appropriation to $50 billion. This
bill also only increases the treatment goal from two million people to
three million-less than ten percent of the 33 million people living
with HIV/AIDS worldwide. It seems odd that you would call for more
treatment, triple the money, but take out an already existing rule
that you have to spend 55% on treatment. Legally, there is no
requirement whatsoever in the pending Senate bill that any money
actually be spent on lifesaving treatment."

Last week, Six AIDS medical care providers and treatment clients
traveled to Washington from Africa from AIDS Healthcare Foundation
clinics in Uganda and South Africa to lobby Senate leaders and
staffers to reinstate the requirement that a minimum percentage of
PEPFAR funds be spent on lifesaving treatment, something AHF believes
has been key to the success of PEPFAR.

SOUTH AFRICA

Jenny Boyce, a mother of three from Durban, South Africa has been
on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment at AHF's Ithembalabantu Clinic
(Zulu for 'people's hope') since 2002 and was one of the clinic's
first clients. She traveled to Washington to tell her story to
legislators and congressional staffers. "At that time, I had been
quite sick, and all I wanted was five more years in order to raise my
children. Today, two are college graduates, and my youngest, Dylan,
who was eight at the time, has started high school. I would be dead
today and my children would be orphans without my having access to
treatment. I, however, am one of the lucky ones; there are still so
many in South Africa without access to treatment leaving countless
orphans behind when they die. I urge all those legislators involved in
renewing this important US global AIDS program to please place a
priority on treatment in this bill."

PEPFAR was the result of President Bush's groundbreaking 2003
State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans
and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections
via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates
in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment
for 1.4 million people worldwide.

About AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the nation's largest
non-profit HIV/AIDS organization. AHF currently provides medical care
and/or services to more than 65,000 individuals in 20 countries
worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia.
Additional information is available at www.aidshealth.org.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Ged Kenslea, 323-860-5225
Mobile: 323-791-5526
gedk@aidshealth.org
or
Lori Yeghiayan, 323-860-5227
Mobile: 323-377-4312
lori.yeghiayan@aidshealth.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008