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December 9, 2009

New U.S. Plan on AIDS Slows Growth in Treatment

"As the Obama administration slowly unveils its global AIDS plan, the drive to put more people on drugs is being scaled back as emphasis is shifted to prevention and to diseases that cost less to fight, including pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and fatal birth complications. ...

"'I’m holding my nose as I say this, but I miss George W. Bush,' said Gregg Gonsalves a long-time AIDS campaigner. 'On AIDS, he really stepped up. He did a tremendous thing. Now, to have this happen under Obama is really depressing.' ...

"Chris Collins, director of public policy at amfAR, the AIDS research foundation, said: 'We can’t keep kids alive to age 13 till they die of something more expensive. Also, a high percentage of health care workers are infected; we’ve got to keep them alive.'

"AIDS advocates said they had heard that, since taking office in June, Dr. Goosby had pressed hard for treatment for five million people [instead of four million] but had lost."

Read more in The New York Times, December 8, 2009.

Also see talk by Gregg Gonsalves on World AIDS Day, December 1.

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