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Pop star and AIDS activist Sir Elton John has told a US Senate panel that the world's richest nation must do more to stop the world's worst epidemic.
The British singer-songwriter, whose AIDS foundation has funded $35 million of grass-roots treatment and prevention programs in 55 countries in the last decade, had never addressed a political body before and he said in an interview before the hearing that he was quite nervous.
But he testified eloquently about the global scourge, which has already claimed some 25 million lives.
"This is the government of the richest nation in history and I'm here asking you for more money to stop the worst epidemic in history," he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.
Lawmakers listened attentively, especially when Sir Elton noted that entertainers and politicians both thrive on applause but what really matters is "whether what we do makes any difference."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wants $NZ 22 billion yearly for the global AIDS fight, up from $4 billion now.
Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy, the health committee chair, said he is drafting legislation to strengthen global resources. An aide later said Kennedy would like to add about $900 million to $1 billion for that initiative next year.
Sandy Thurman, a former White House AIDS adviser who heads the International AIDS Trust, testified that rich countries tend to limit their efforts in poor countries to prevention, not costly treatment, but the two must go hand-in-hand.
People have scant incentive to find out if they are HIV-infected if they are not going to get care. "Where treatment is offered, counselling and testing centers are swamped," she said.
Sir Elton said that some of the programs his foundation has funded have been quite simple. In Kenya, for instance, they gave AIDS workers bicycles to reach more people. In Soweto, South Africa, a hospice reaches out to the dying. But it only has eight beds, he said, in a nation where four million people are infected.
© Reuters
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