2005 press releases

World Aids Day 2005 (December 1, 2005)

The theme for this World AIDS Day is "Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise," and the United States is doing just that.

President Bush will announce on December 1 that, as of September 2005, through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the United States has supported anti-retroviral treatment for more than 400,000 men, women and children through bilateral programs in 15 of the most afflicted countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The U.S. continues to support treatment for more people than any other international partner in the world.

The United States campaign to fight HIV/AIDS represents the largest international health initiative any nation has ever directed against a single disease. President Bush in 2003 launched an Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – a commitment of $15 billion over five years to fight the disease in more than 123 countries around the world.

The Plan set ambitious goals, including supporting treatment for 2 million HIV-infected people, supporting the prevention of 7 million new infections, and supporting care for 10 million people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children, in 15 of the world's hardest-hit nations.

We are now implementing the most complex and diverse prevention, treatment and care strategy in the world. The need is critical – more than 40 million people worldwide are now estimated to be infected with HIV – and more than 2 million are children.

The heart of President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is to work shoulder to shoulder with partners in host nations in support of the national strategy in each country. The goal is to build quality healthcare networks and increase infrastructure capacity in host nations to allow communities to sustain their efforts long into the future.

We are also working closely with our multilateral partners to ensure coordinated support for host countries' national strategies. Key international partners include UNAIDS, WHO, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, to which the U.S. is by far the world's largest contributor.

The United States is leading the international fight against HIV/AIDS. Many people are alive today because of this effort. We have turned our promise into actions and we will maintain this commitment.