For World AIDS Day, Huckabee Endorses ETHA

The suffering and loss of life caused by HIV/AIDS is a national and international tragedy. Here at home, more than a million of us have HIV or AIDS, with 40,000 new cases last year. The incidence of new infections has not declined in fifteen years. This disease is especially devastating to our minority communities, which account for two of every three new cases. While African-Americans are only 13% of our population, they are half of our AIDS cases. The rate of infection is ten times as high for African-Americans as for whites, and three times as high for Latinos. Ending this disparity must be one of our top goals. While we must continue our global leadership on HIV/AIDS, we must also take care of our own. My administration will be the first to have an overarching strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS here in the United States, with a partnership between the public and private sectors that will provide necessary financing and a realistic path toward our goals. We must prevent new infections and provide more accessible care. We must transform the promise of a vaccine and a cure into reality. In some areas, such as reducing mother-to-child transmission and securing our blood supply, we have achieved dramatic success. But we have so much more to accomplish. In most states today, only those with AIDS are eligible for Medicaid. We must expand that coverage to those with HIV because early intervention will result in better management and longer life. We must continue to fund the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides much needed treatment and support services to low-income Americans, and make certain that the money goes to the communities and parts of the country where the disease has migrated. We must provide more funding for research, such as that done at our National Institutes of Health. I am proud that the United States has led the global battle against HIV/ AIDS. We have both a strategic interest as the world's only superpower and a moral obligation as the world's richest country to continue to do so until this scourge is a memory. The magnitude of the numbers is heartbreaking: the United Nations' report for 2007 shows more than 33 million people have HIV/AIDS, with 2.5 million newly infected and over 2 million deaths. At the end of each day, about 5,700 people have died from AIDS, and 6,800 are newly infected. Behind these statistics lies the individual story of a unique human being, stories of great suffering and sorrow, of children deprived of their nurturing mothers and their bread-winning fathers. There are almost 12 million AIDS orphans in Africa, many living in institutions or on the streets. It seems overwhelming, but there is also good news: antiretroviral drugs cost just 40 cents a day, and the number of people in Africa receiving them grew from just 1% to 28% between 2002 and 2006. We must do even better in the next four years. I support President Bush's proposal to double our initial commitment from $15 billion to $30 billion over the next five years for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR has already done an extraordinary amount of good, by providing drugs for over a million people and care for four-and-a-half million people, but it expires in 2008 and must be reauthorized. I support an increase in our commitment to the Global Fund. Through PEPFAR and the Global Fund, we can do our fair share to meet the Millennium Development Goals we affirmed in 2000, which include universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care. We must always be mindful that "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Permalink: http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=778