WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said yesterday he would nominate Dr. Eric Goosby as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, picking a former Clinton AIDS official to run one of President George W. Bush’s most successful programmes.
As ambassador at large and global AIDS coordinator, Goosby would direct the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and would be in charge of disbursing billions of dollars approved by Congress for AIDS relief overseas.
The programme to fight AIDS overseas was often cited as one of Bush’s most important achievements. US researchers said recently the programme had cut AIDS deaths by 10 percent in targeted African countries, while failing to prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Groups involved in the fight against AIDS have been critical of Obama for what they said was his silence on the disease during his first months in office.
The Global AIDS Alliance welcomed the selection of Goosby but urged him to press the administration to fulfil a campaign pledge to double US foreign assistance from $25 billion to at least $50 billion by the year 2012.
“The president’s FY10 (Fiscal Year 2010) budget request is well below what is required to keep that promise,” the group said in a statement.
