Ambassador Hooks with Ivoirian PEPFAR partners (Photo : Soro Yacouba/US Embassy)

United States Will Spend 85 Billion CFA by 2007 to Fight AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the United States plans to spend over 85 billion CFA (USD $170 million) to fight AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire by the end of 2007, announced Ambassador Aubrey Hooks during a press conference at the American Embassy.  Through 2006, the United States will have injected 55 billion CFA into Côte d’Ivoire to reinforce the capacity of the Ivoirian health sector and local communities throughout the country to respond to this epidemic.  The American Ambassador said that thanks to this unprecedented support, most of those affected and infected by and with HIV/AIDS are receiving care and treatment.

“Despite the socio-political crisis that has affected Côte d’Ivoire for the last four years, the American Emergency Plan has been able to touch the majority of those in this country in need of care,” said Ambassador Hooks during this morning’s ceremony.  “I’m convinced that with the substantial resources that we have committed to this fight, we will be able to turn despair into hope, difficulty into possibility, and an epidemic into an example of what we can accomplish together.”

During the event, the Ambassador presented the Minister for the Fight Against AIDS, along with the ministers of health and families with the technical plan for the American Emergency Plan.  The plan details the work of the program’s efforts to prevent 200,000 new HIV/AIDS infections in Côte d’Ivoire, while treating 77,000 Ivorians who have already been infected with the disease, and providing care for 385,000 orphans and vulnerable children who have been infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.  The Minister for AIDS expressed the gratitude of the Ivoirian government and people for the United States’ strong engagement in her country.

“In the name of the Ivoirian government and my colleagues…I thank your country for its support, as much technical and financial, that you have given to us, particularly since 2004 through the American Emergency Plan,” remarked Dr. Christine Nebout Adjobi, Minister for the Fight Against AIDS.