Statement from Bono on PEPFAR Announcement

05.30.07

“This is great news at a time when good news is hard to find. These AIDS drugs are a great advertisement for American leadership, innovation and the kind of John Wayne 'get it done' mentality that the greatest health crisis in 600 years demands. It's hard to jump up and down when we're still losing the battle at 7,700 new infections a day in Africa, but this could be a turning point if other G8 countries meeting in Germany next week follow President Bush's lead.

It's worth remembering that just five years ago, the whisper in Washington DC was that Africans didn't have wristwatches so wouldn't know when to take their life-saving AIDS pills. With PEPFAR the First, President Bush and the Congress debunked this myth on a grand scale by putting over a million people in Africa on ARV drugs. PEPFAR the Second not only means a lot more drugs for a lot more people, but dramatically turns up the heat on other powerful countries to do their bit.”

Contact: Taylor Thompson, +1 202.360.1306, tthompson@data.org