ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML xmlns:asp><HEAD> <TITLE>U.S. government contributes 1.4 bln USD for HIV programs in Ethiopia: Ambassador </TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <META content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0" name=GENERATOR> <META content="Visual Basic .NET 7.1" name=CODE_LANGUAGE> <META content=JavaScript name=vs_defaultClientScript> <META content=http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5 name=vs_targetSchema><LINK href="../../../../Style/ENA.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet ><LINK href="../../../../../vg.css" type=text/css rel=STYLESHEET ></HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff MS_POSITIONING="GridLayout"> <P> &nbsp;</P> <TABLE id=Table1 style="Z-INDEX: 102; LEFT: 8px; WIDTH: 984px; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 8px; HEIGHT: 24px" cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 width=984 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD style="WIDTH: 976px" vAlign=middle align=center> <P style="text-align: left"> <img src="../../../../Images/Logo.gif" /> &nbsp;&nbsp; <IMG src="../../../../Images/ENALogo.gif" ></P></TD> <TD vAlign=middle align=center> <P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR> <TR> <TD style="WIDTH: 976px" vAlign="middle" align="center" bgColor="#cc3399" colSpan="1" rowSpan="1"></TD> <TD vAlign="middle" align="center"></TD> </TR></TBODY></TABLE> <br /> <br /> <table> <tr> <td style="width: 622px" valign="top"> <TABLE id=Table2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; Z-INDEX: 103; LEFT: 11px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; TOP: 97px;" cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; BORDER-BOTTOM: darkgray 1px solid; width: 588px; height: 1px;" vAlign=bottom align=center bgColor=white> <SPAN id=lblHeading style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: larger; WIDTH: 580px; COLOR: royalblue; FONT-FAMILY: Visual Geez Unicode; HEIGHT: 24px; line-height: normal;" >U.S. government contributes 1.4 bln USD for HIV programs in Ethiopia: Ambassador </SPAN></TD></TR> <TR style="PADDING-RIGHT: 12px; PADDING-LEFT: 12px; LEFT: 20px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 12px; MARGIN-LEFT: 6px; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; PADDING-TOP: 12px"> <TD style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Visual Geez Unicode; HEIGHT: 17px; width: 588px; background-color: ghostwhite;" vAlign=top align=left bgColor=#f8f8ff> <span style="font-size: 10pt">Addis Ababa, November 30, 2011 (Addis Ababa) - The U.S. government through its President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has contributed 1.4 billion USD for implementation of HIV programs in Ethiopia, U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Booth said. <p>Launched in 2003, PEPFAR is the U.S. Government initiative to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. <p>In a press conference held here on Wednesday, Ambassador Booth said nearly one quarter of a million Ethiopians are currently receiving life-saving antiretroviral treatment. <p>The Ambassador said PEPFAR supported Ethiopia s efforts to provide HIV counseling and testing to over 5.5 million people over the past year. <p>Mortality rate attributable to AIDS declined by 70 percent from 2003 to 2007 in Addis Ababa due to increased access to treatment, the Ambassador said. <p>He said percentage of pregnant women, who were HIV-positive and living in urban areas declined to 5.5 percent from 14.4 percent over the last ten years. <p>Since the launch of the PEPFAR, the U.S. government has committed nearly 39 billion USD to address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic, he said. <p>He said the U.S. is also the first and largest contributor to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with over 5.1 billion USD provided to date. <p>Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of Global Fund resources, he said, adding, together with the Ethiopian government the U.S is working to encourage more women to attend antenatal care services, to increase the number of women, who deliver in a health facility and to ensure that HIV positive pregnant women and their infants get access to antiretroviral drugs. <p>Currently, PEPFAR provides care and support for over 1.1 million people including 493,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia. <p>PEPFAR is one of the major stakeholder and donor of the ICASA 2011 Conference, which will be held in Ethiopia from 4 to 8 December 2011, the Ambassador said, adding, it has donated close to two million USD towards the success of the conference. <p><p>Founder of PEPFAR, Former President of the U.S. Government, George Bush will take part in the event, the Ambassador said.<p><p>DR - 60 minutes <p><p>---END---<p></span></TD></TR> </TBODY></TABLE> </td> <td style="width: 657px; font-size: 12pt;" valign="top"> <table> <tr> <td style="width: 366px"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 366px; background-color: cornflowerblue; text-align: center; height: 4px;"> <strong><span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Trebuchet MS">Headlines</span></strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: smaller; width: 366px; font-family: 'Visual Geez Unicode'"> <img src="../../../../Images/grn_arrow.gif"" /><a href="155264.htm">U.S. government contributes 1.4 bln USD for HIV programs in Ethiopia: Ambassador </a><br /> <img src="../../../../Images/grn_arrow.gif"" /><a href="155271.htm">University launches wireless Internet service </a><br /> <img src="../../../../Images/grn_arrow.gif"" /><a href="155288.htm">Nearly 34,000 farmers undertaking dev t projects</a><br /> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color: whitesmoke; text-align: center;" colspan="2"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #006699; font-family: Trebuchet MS"><strong>(c) The Ethiopian News Agency</strong></span></td> </tr> </table> </BODY></HTML>