Obama pledges $50 million to fight AIDS

President Obama has pledged $50 million to the prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS across the country and around the globe.

WASHINGTON DC (Catholic Online) - Obama made the announcement on Thursday as part of activities to commemorate World AIDS Day. He told a Washington crowd, "we just have to keep at it, steady, persistent... every day until we get to zero."

His pledge has drawn praise from AIDS activists including U2 singer Bono, and chief executive of Coca-Cola Company, Muthar Kent, who were n hand for the President's speech.

The World Health Organization has credited substantial global investment in HIV and AIDS research over the last decade with saving millions of lives and reducing AIDS-related deaths by 22 percent in the last five years. Research also shows that robust treatment of HIV can reduce the spread of the disease between partners by as much as 96 percent.

As part of the plan, the US will send anti-retroviral drugs overseas for the next two years to approximately 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women to protect their children from contracting the disease.

In addition to drugs, the money will be used to purchase condoms, and to provide an estimated 4.7 million voluntary medical male circumcisions which researchers say can dramatically reduce the transmission of the disease between heterosexual partners.

In the United States, approximately 1.2 million Americans have HIV, but only about a quarter of them actually have the virus under control according to government officials.

Worldwide, more than 30 million people have died of AIDS and at least 34 million others are living with HIV in various stages. Officials warned the actual numbers could be even higher since the disease can sometimes spread through patients for some time before it is detected.

While all efforts to cure the disease, to alleviate human suffering, and to protect the unborn from infection are admirable, there are two caveats that should be remembered. First, money spent on HIV and AIDS research while attention-getting and popular, represents money that is not being spent on diseases that affect and kill millions of people worldwide. AIDS is a killer, but it is not the number one killer in the US, by far.

Secondly, HIV infection is almost entirely preventable. While there are heartbreaking and tragic cases of children who are infected through their mothers, and patients who are infected by accident, the disease is chiefly spread through sexual contact, typically related to high risk behavior. 

Naturally, the best treatment for any disease is prevention. Abstinence and monogamy are far preferable to antiviral drugs, no matter how powerful, in combating the terrible scourge of HIV.

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