change the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Now, 16 years later, this program is one of the reasons we have 19 million people receiving HIV medicines throughout the world. This program has literally saved millions of lives. It is pretty emotional watching President Bush announce the initiative (please watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n75rfrHWawo).
The President makes this announcement 6 years after we had started using combination drugs that could totally suppress the virus. But in sub-Saharan Africa in 2003, of the 30 million people estimated to be infected, only 50,000 people had access to these treatments; just 50,000! There were literally communities in Africa where most adults had died and only children and the elderly remained.
PEPFAR was clearly more than just talk. The Bush Administration committed funds to the program to the tune of 15 billion dollars for the first 5 years. The US has contributed well over 70 billion dollars through the first 15 years. But in the early years, the situation for providing HIV medicines to low-income countries was a complicated one.
There were drug manufacturers prepared to produce generic HIV medicines at a low cost that developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America could afford. However, the