Clinton announces additional $157 million to fight AIDS

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced that the US would contribute an additional $157 million to the fight against HIV-AIDS, even as a host of celebrity speakers at the ongoing International AIDS Conference in Los Angeles admitted that the world continued to face serious challenges in halting the spread of the epidemic.

Reflecting on the mixed record of the scientific community seeking a cure for HIV-AIDS Clinton said, the ability to prevent and treat the disease had advanced beyond what many might have reasonably hoped 22 years ago.

She added AIDS was still incurable, but it no longer had to be a death sentence.

Acknowledging president George W Bush's initiative, the setting up of the nodal PEPFAR agency in 2003 for fighting HIV-AIDS in the US, she added that under president Barack Obama the focus of the US had been on ''shifting out of emergency mode and starting to build sustainable health systems that will help us finally win this fight.''

To that end, she announced, the US would make an additional contribution of $40 million to support South Africa's voluntary medical circumcision plans; investing an additional $80 million to ensure that HIV-positive pregnant women received adequate treatment; $37 million towards implementation of research, country-specific programmes and civil-society support targeting vulnerable and high-risk populations across the world.

Making a special mention of India, Clinton said, along with South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, India, may be able to provide more and better care by committing more of its own resources to the cause.