Edwards Campaign Press Release - Edwards Reveals Bold Strategy To Combat HIV/AIDS

Comprehensive plan will fight HIV/AIDS epidemic at home and abroad

District of Columbia– Today, Senator John Edwards unveiled a series of specific proposals to lead the fight against HIV/AIDS at home and around the world.

"The loss from HIV/AIDS is almost beyond understanding," said Edwards. "This is a fight for people's lives. HIV is a preventable disease – but an estimated 40,000 new HIV cases were reported in the U.S. last year, and 4.3 million were reported around the world. What's more, HIV/AIDS is a treatable disease – yet 17,000 Americans and 3 million people globally died from it in 2005. We have a moral imperative to do much more and do it much better."

Edwards' proposals to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic build on his plan to provide universal health care for all Americans. Edwards was the first presidential candidate to propose a plan for quality, affordable health care for every man, woman and child in America. He has also promised to take on the big insurance and drug companies, pledging to submit legislation on the first day of his administration that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both the executive and legislative branches of government on July 20th, 2009 unless universal health care legislation that meets four specific, non- of negotiable principles has been passed by that date.

The Edwards HIV/AIDS strategy is fourfold: it guarantees health insurance to every American to ensure that they receive the care they need when they need it, and it will expand Medicaid to cover HIV-positive individuals before they reach later stages disabilities and AIDS. It calls for greater resources to fight the epidemic in African-American and Latino communities, where infection rates have drastically risen. And it calls for universal global access to HIV/AIDS medicine, investing $50 billion over five years to make it easier for people infected with HIV/AIDS to get the treatment they need. Edwards will also put an end to the policies that protect the profits of big drug corporations at the expense of people dying of HIV/AIDS in developing countries.

Edwards will support science-based prevention strategies to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS – including comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education and harm-reduction programs that provide high-risk individuals with access to clean syringes. Edwards also promised to strengthen America's scientific research agenda, which has suffered drastic funding cuts under the Bush administration.

On Monday, Edwards participated in a health care forum hosted by Families USA and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The hour-long event was moderated by leading journalists and focused on expanding health care access.

For more details on Edwards' plan for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, click here.