President Obama Announces $50M Domestic Funding Boost at World AIDS Day  

DEC-01-11  Last Thursday at the World AIDS Day event at George Washington University, President Obama renewed the US commitment to "end the AIDS pandemic once and for all."  The President's speech echoed that given by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just a few weeks earlier in which she announced that creating an AIDS-free generation is now a policy priority of the U.S. government for the first time in history.  President Obama cemented that commitment with specific funding pledges and specific goals. 

The President pledged an additional $15M to Ryan White Care, and an additional $35M for state AIDS drug assistance programs.  Obama also called on private foundations, pharmaceutical companies and state governments to pledge funds to help Americans get access to life-saving treatments.

In addition to increasing domestic spending, President Obama set specific goals for the global AIDS community, such as providing anti-retroviral drugs to more than 1.5M HIV-positive pregnant women by 2013.  Over that same two-year period, he also plans to help 6M people gain access to anti-retroviral treatment, representing a 50% increase in the number of people around the world currently supported by the US.

Click here to read Meredith Mazzotta's take on the response to Secretary Clinton's speech in Science Speaks, the blog of the Center for Global Health Policy .