Campaign nudges US Pres Obama to add to AIDS funding, but still 'not nearly enough,' says AHF

In his fiscal year 2011 budget amendments for the US Department of Health and Human Services presented for Congress consideration last Friday, President Barack Obama proposed increases for, among other things, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention funding - possibly in response to this month's campaign by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) advertising campaign denouncing the President for not keeping pre-election promises on funding for the condition (The Pharma Letter August 11).

The AHF's campaign - which carried the slogan 'The War on AIDS has not been won' - came on the heels of the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna last month, in which President Obama received criticism for what many in the HIV/AIDS community see as a US retreat on global AIDS under his leadership. It called on President Obama to simply keep his promise on universal access to antiretrovirals by spending the $10 billion annually on global AIDS which he voted for as a Senator and committed to as a presidential candidate.

Just additional $5 million being offered