Yesterday afternoon, President Bush signed into law new PEPFAR legislation, finalizing months of work by ONE members, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, advocacy organizations, foreign policy experts and medical professionals who worked together to pass historic new funding levels to fight AIDS, TB and malaria.

ONE Campaign Co-founder Bono issued this response:

“Americans, whether they know it or not, are literally saving the lives of millions of people in the poorest places on the planet. In the last five years, America has prevented 1 million women from passing on HIV to their babies…funded care for 3 millions AIDS orphans…and provided desperately needed medicine to more than 1.4 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS. You are my heroes and not just for what you’ve done, but for what this new law promises.

This has more to do with hard heads than soft hearts. America’s global AIDS plan has proved to be a smart investment, paying dividends in live saved, communities stabilized and America’s reputation in the world growing a little bit brighter. This stuff works and leaders from left and right — leaders like Senators Biden and Lugar, Representatives Berman and Ros-Lehtinen, President Bush, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid – put aside their differences and agreed to do more.”

African development was again the subject of G8 discussions as world leaders gathered in Toyako, Hokkaido in northern Japan from July 7-9 for the 2008 G8 Summit. While the G8 was confronted with multiple global challenges, including climate change and a weakening global economy, the 2008 Hokkaido Summit marked an important “mid point” moment in the fight against poverty. The Hokkaido Summit came at the critical halfway point to both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 Gleneagles promises to Africa. The G8 are dangerously behind on their landmark commitments to the region, having delivered only $3 billion of the promised $25 billion in additional assistance to Africa by 2010, according to the 2008 DATA Report.

After difficult negotiations, the G8 summit yielded small gains for the poorest. The bulk of G8 agreements on development and Africa and food security reiterated previous pledges rather than outlining new measures to get the group back on track. The G8 did announce plans for a new effort to tackle the global food crisis, though more details are needed to ensure its effectiveness and delivery. They highlighted the UN High-level meeting on the MDGs in September as an important opportunity to review progress and identify actions needed to overcome remaining challenges.

At a time when G8 credibility is at risk due to slow progress in delivering on commitments, there was a strong call for greater accountability in the G8 Communique. The G8 agreed to track progress against previous commitments in health, education, water and agriculture, as well as its compliance with anti-corruption measures.

Overall, the US, UK and Germany provided strong leadership in negotiations and have significantly increased their funding for Africa in recent years.

After the jump, the following brief overview of outcomes for Africa from the 2008 G8 Summit.

-Ben Hubbard

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Many think that TB has been eliminated from the U.S., but this is far from true. The poster on the left was created by the Red Cross in 1919, promising that tuberculosis would be “The Next To Go.” But this dreaded disease has not yet gone.

One-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that causes TB, and one in ten of those infected develop active TB disease.

What is the U.S. doing to stop TB? Not enough. U.S. and global efforts to combat TB are falling short.

The U.S. House of Representatives is now considering the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act, which would greatly expand our efforts to combat TB, including the development of new, effective drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines.

How can you help? Tell your legislators to co-sponsor the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act (H.R. 1532). Call 1-800-828-0498.

Your immediate action can help curb the TB pandemic.

The current TB vaccine was introduced in the early 1900s, and over time, its effectiveness has greatly diminished. What is more, strains of TB have developed that are resistant to all of our major anti-TB drugs.

Take action now. Call 1-800-828-0498. Tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act (H.R. 1531) to prevent the spread of drug resistant TB in the U.S. and to develop new medical tools to fight TB.

Please note that while ALL legislators need to hear from you, it is especially important to call if you are from key, target states(Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia). Click here to find your elected official.

Thank you for fighting TB with us.

Summary of the bill

-Christine Kim, Families USA

Sunday, Global Fund Director Michel Kazatchkine announced the Fund may begin to loan cash to developing countries that no longer qualify for their grants.

A quote the recent Reuters’ piece:

“By the end of next year 10 countries from the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region — including Turkey, Kazakhstan and Russia — will no longer qualify for Global Fund grants as they will be considered upper income countries.

But some of these countries have only just built up the mechanisms to battle AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria and Kazatchkine cited Kazakhstan as an example of a country which may benefit from a loan and extended help from The Global Fund.

Former Soviet Kazakhstan in Central Asia has grown richer over the last decade from high energy and commodity prices but faces an accelerating number of people with the HIV virus.”

-Virginia Simmons

Snohomish RESULTS and The Snohomish County Health District (a community north of Seattle) held very inspiring event to honor World Tuberculosis Day (TB) at at the Wired & Unplugged Internet Coffeehouse and the region’s ONE members came out to support.

TB is the leading cause of death worldwide among women. More than nine million people are infected and nearly two million lives are lost to TB globally . Over one-third of the population of the earth has been exposed to the bacterium and is according to the World Health Organization, a new case develops every second. Not everyone infected develops the full blown disease, but one in ten will, and without prompt and thorough care, will die from this disease.

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Today is World Tuberculosis Day.

Last week, the WHO released it’s newest study on the disease, reporting that while TB cases have been slowly falling since 2003, a drug-resistant strain of TB (MDR-TB) is on a steep rise. Worldwide we can expect about 9 million new cases of TB this year, and 500,000 new cases of MDR-TB.

Learn more at the World TB Day site.

And scroll though the ONE Blog’s “TB” tag for our recent postings.

Including:

• Alexandra Fullem’s (of the the Global Health Council) excellent account of the Congressional briefing in honor of World TB Day on the 13th and the status of TB overall.
• A summary of the WHO’s February report on TB and MDR-TB
• A LA Times editorial urging world leaders for more funding to fight the drug-resistant strain of TB.

And more.

(Alexandra Fullem works for the Global Health Council)

Yesterday the Global Health Council, Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation and the American Thoracic Society hosted a Congressional briefing in honor of World TB Day 2008. We learned from our 3 speakers more about the threat of MDR and XDR TB, more about the perfect storm of TB/HIV co-infection and about the great work that is being done in the push to find a vaccine. The speakers were Dr. Payam Nahid from the University of California, San Francisco, Thomas Kenyon from the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and Sylvie Kwedie from the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.

So, why is TB, an ancient disease, continuing to plague us after 5000 years? There are many reasons and the speakers outlined these for us. The first is poverty. The disease spreads quickly through the air and so we are all at risk, but those living in poverty even more so. The second is the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 1/3 of the population is carrying a latent form of TB. Once your immune system is compromised it becomes much more likely you will progress to active TB. In fact, TB is the leading cause of death for HIV patients with up to 40% of HIV deaths being TB related. The third reason that TB is still with us is poor TB control programs worldwide and poor laboratory capabilities, especially in endemic countries.

A fourth reason is that the drugs we are using to treat TB all date from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s.We are treating this disease with very old technology.

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