We are organizations advocating equitable access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS around the world and especially in Africa where currently the majority of people living with HIV and AIDS reside. We are writing to express our deep sense of outrage at the shockingly racist comments made by a senior member of your staff. According to an April 29 article in the New York Times, the unnamed senior Treasury Department official "said Africans lacked a requisite ‘concept of time,’ implying that they would not benefit from HIV drugs that must be administered on tight time schedules."

We are writing to demand that you repudiate this offensive behavior, and we believe the administration should be held responsible for addressing it.

In particular we request that you immediately:

US officials involved in shaping international AIDS policy should have a working knowledge African affairs, as well as treatment issues. If US officials lack such knowledge, we suggest they visit any of the numerous clinics run by local health care providers, governments, and NGOs, to learn for themselves about the capacity that exists to deliver HIV/AIDS drugs in Africa. A stunning ignorance lies behind the comments made and a US policy that refuses to address the imperative of treatment access–using such ignorance as an excuse–has deadly implications.

The comments also reveal a lack of expertise on issues of HIV/AIDS among US officials shaping international AIDS policy. New combinations of anti-HIV drugs involve as few as six pills a day, and already are being administered in some settings in the developing world.

Arguments about the inability of people to adhere to anti-HIV treatment regimes are often trotted out as an excuse for inaction.

However, there is strong evidence that adherence rates achieved in developing countries are comparable to those in the United States. US policy must be based on facts and not bigoted stereotypes.

More important than the views of any individual, however misguided, are the policies of the administration. The nations of the world seem finally ready to begin addressing the AIDS pandemic in a way that is remotely proportionate to the scale of the tragedy. It is time for the U.S. to announce its commitment to contribute several billions of dollars to a multilateral public health fund to address HIV/AIDS, as well as TB and malaria.

Given the moral imperative of providing life-saving treatments to the more than 25 million HIV-positive people in Africa, the administration and this fund must commit to do exactly what the anonymous official said would not be done: invest in treatment–the purchase and delivery of life-saving medicines–on a scale at least proportionate to investments in prevention.

We respectfully request an immediate and direct public response to this matter.

Sincerely,

cc:
George W. Bush
The Honorable Colin Powell, Secretary of State, USA
Walter H. Kansteiner III, Designated Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dept of State
Congressional Black Caucus
Zackie Achmat, Chairperson, Treatment Action Campaign
The Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations
Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS