When President Bush announced in 2003 his five-year, $15 billion plan to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in Africa and around the world, many of us didn’t even know how to react. The U.S. had no particular strategic political or economic interests in saving the lives of HIV-infected Africans, and their fate certainly was not a top concern on the minds of most Americans.

At the moment, the continuing global financial crisis calls into question the capacity of G-8 nations and other Western countries to increase or maintain their level of support for AIDS remedial efforts in poor countries. Ever since President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had been introduced, barely 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa received life-saving antiretroviral treatment.

Moreover despite notable success in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, 7,500 individuals contract HIV every day and at least 6,000 people die of AIDS every day. As many as 15 million children have already been orphaned by this preventable disease.
However as a result of PEPFAR's inception, a remarkable progress was made in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care.

Bush launched PEPFAR in 2003. It is the largest international commitment any nation has made that is focused on a single disease, and it confronts one of the great health challenges of our time.  Currently through PEPFAR, the American people also are supporting care for more than 10 million people affected by HIV/AIDS, including 4 million orphans and vulnerable children.

Asia is another part of the world where the HIV virus is a real matter of concern. In Asia there is the “shame” of the problem that can bring a whole set of educational needs and barriers to treatment. There are some shame factors in Africa as well as Asia but not as predominant

That’s why world organizations devoted to treatment of the disease are also concerned about the “shame” factor surrounding someone who contacted the virus and how that impacts families seeking help. If a family has “shame,” they may hide the infection from authorities, which can cause serious problems for the community and the countries as a whole. That’s because they sometimes would rather die than seek help.

Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. Eventually most HIV-infected individuals develop AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). These individuals mostly die from opportunistic infections or malignancies associated with the progressive failure of the immune system. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on December 1, 1981.