Clinton Approves AIDS Trust Fund

Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 19 -- A week before his trip to Africa,President Clinton signed a bill today that sets up a globaltrust fund for AIDS victims that has been likened to a kind ofMarshall Plan against the infectious disease—the leading cause ofdeath on the African continent.

The measure, signed in Lake Placid, where Clinton wascelebrating his 54th birthday with his family, creates a World BankAIDS Trust Fund to provide grants for AIDS prevention, care andeducation to countries hardest hit by the disease.

It also authorizes funding for the administration’s fiscal 2001initiatives to fight HIV and AIDS worldwide and strengthens theU.S. response to the pandemic that killed 2.8 million people acrossthe globe last year.

A Threat to Fragile Democracies

The bill includes $300 million for the U.S. Agency forInternational Development to pay for education, voluntary testingand counseling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and carefor those living with HIV or AIDS.

It also authorizes $50 million in new funding for the GlobalAlliance for Vaccines and Immunization; $10 million for theInternational AIDS Vaccine Initiative; and $60 million to fighttuberculosis—the single largest killer of adults worldwide andthe leading cause of death of those with AIDS.

“Fighting AIDS worldwide is not just the right thing to do,it’s the smart thing. In our tightly connected world, infectiousdisease anywhere is a threat to public health everywhere,” Clintonsaid in his weekly radio address. “AIDS threatens the economies ofthe poorest countries, the stability of friendly nations, thefuture of fragile democracies.”

U.S. Hopes For More Donors

Clinton, who travels to Nigeria and Tanzania next week, isdirecting Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to begin negotiationswith the World Bank to set up the trust fund.

The bill, passed by Congress last month, authorizes U.S.contributions of $150 million a year for two years. The money isintended as a springboard to bring in up to $1 billion a year frominternational donors. The House had pushed for a $500 million U.S.contribution over five years, but the Senate scaled it back.