George W. Bush Saved A Million Lives in Africa

In case you missed it, George W. Bush saved millions of lives in Africa.  From the Mercury News in Silicon Valley:

Former President George W. Bush's AIDS initiatives have saved a million lives in Africa, according to a Stanford study published Monday.

The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was implemented in 2003 as a five-year, $15 billion program to fund AIDS treatment and care in Africa. Stanford researchers compared data from the program's 12 "focus" countries with 29 other African nations hit hard by the disease.

They found that the HIV/AIDS death toll in PEPFAR-funded countries was cut by 10 percent between 2003 and 2007, according to a Stanford School of Medicine statement.

The New York Times notes it too, but with this headline: "U.S. Initiative is found to reduce deaths from AIDS, but not new cases, in Africa."  That Bush.  He is always screwing someone, somehow.  Besides, we know who gets the real credit:

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the $15 billion program begun by the Bush administration in 2003, cut the AIDS death toll in its African target countries by more than 10 percent, but did not prevent new cases, according to a new study.

Gritting its yellowed teeth, the Times cannot quite deny the basic story.  Bush policy saved millions of lives in Africa.   Here's how the Washington Post, a liberal but less jaundiced paper puts it:

PEPFAR, the brainchild of President George W. Bush in 2003, has targeted Vietnam, Haiti, Guyana and 12 sub-Saharan nations for HIV testing, counseling and treatment. Statistics through Sep. 30, 2008, show that more than 2 million men, women and children have received antiretroviral treatment because of the program. This would include almost 1.2 million pregnant HIV-positive women. As a result, 240,000 infants were born free of HIV infection. The upshot, according to the Annals of Internal Medicine: a 10.5 percent reduction in the AIDS death rate in 12 PEPFAR countries in Africa compared with neighboring nations.

This is, of course, irrelevant to judging other Bush policies.  But it is still an enormous achievement, and one few Presidents can boast of.  Consider the moral weight of that single statistic: "240,000 infants were born free of HIV infection."  That is a positive good. 

Comments

[mallys]

That is a positive good unless one doesn't want those children to be born at all.

[KB]

Yes, Mallys, that is a caveat, and I understand your comment to be ironic. As I happen to think that every child is precious, I am not conflicted on the matter.