Coalition calls on candidates to develop AIDS strategy

A week after 100 organizations issued a public call to the 2008 presidential candidates to put forward comprehensive plans to end the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, the John Edwards campaign released just such a plan Sept. 24. Rebecca Haag, executive director of both the AIDS Action Committee (AAC) of Massachusetts and the Washington, D.C.-based AIDS Action, both of which signed on to the public call, said she expects other candidates will likely follow suit. She declined to say which candidates she expected to do so.

"I think we will see more candidates coming forward," said Haag. She said AIDS Action has reached out to each of the campaigns among both the Republicans and Democrats to urge them to draft domestic HIV/AIDS plans, and AIDS Action has offered to provide technical assistance to candidates interested in learning what such a plan should entail.

Haag praised Edwards for releasing his plan, and she said some of the factors in his plan that stand out are its focus on looking at health care disparities in different communities affected by HIV/AIDS and his proposal to lift the federal ban on funding needle exchange programs. She said his proposal is consistent with what many HIV/AIDS service organizations have been recommending for years.

Haag said that most of the candidates who have expressed interest so far in developing domestic HIV/AIDS plans have been Democrats, but she expects at least some of the Republicans to follow suit. She said Republicans have always been active in helping renew the Ryan White Care Act in Congress, and she believes some will rise to the challenge of combating HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

"I'm confident that this is a bipartisan issue," said Haag.