October 29, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators agreed Tuesday to direct a part of a $15 billion global AIDS bill toward the problems of unsafe medical injections in Africa, potentially one of few mandates from Congress on how the money should be spent.
No one objected when Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., proposed amending a foreign aid package being debated to ensure at least $75 million from the AIDS bill, already signed into law, would go toward injections. He had been concerned that health officials wanted to use nearly all the $15 billion for curbing sexual transmission of the disease.
Sessions said conservative estimates show as many as 1,000 people a day die of AIDS from unsafe medical treatment.
"I think it could save hundreds of thousands of lives," Sessions said of his amendment. "There's no doubt in my mind about that."
Sessions said he is convinced the World Health Organization long has underestimated the percentage of African HIV exposures stemming from tainted injections and transfusions. Although the agency has assumed 2.5 percent of the cases are medical in nature, most studies show it to be far higher -- more than 40 percent in at least two.
The conflicting research has created a rift among experts -- even within WHO. While some want to direct money toward syringe distribution and blood safety programs, others fear that will dilute the focus on unsafe sex -- largely undisputed as the top cause of AIDS in the continent.
Sessions contends the $15 billion AIDS bill, which President Bush signed in May, should focus on both causes. He views his amendment, which sets a $75 million floor on spending for medical AIDS cases, as a check to make sure health officials who will ultimately allocate the money agree.
"The bureaucrats have decided, for whatever reason, that they don't want to be as active on the medical transmission area as they should be," Sessions said. "I'll be shocked if they don't decide to spend more than $75 million on this particular aspect of the problem."
Because senators weren't asked to take a roll call vote on the amendment, it's unclear how many of them realized exactly what it would do. It could still encounter challenges when negotiators from the House and Senate get together to resolve differences in the foreign operations bill. The House has already approved its version.
Under Sessions' proposal, at least $46 million would be spent on blood safety and $29 million on injection safety, including such things as non-reusable, disposable syringes and the training of health care providers.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
