For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
June 11, 2007

Mrs. Bush's Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion on HIV/AIDS
Ministry of Health
Sofia, Bulgaria

10:15 A.M. (Local)

MRS. BUSH: I do want to thank you all for coming to talk about this. The United States government, as you know, has made a very large commitment to target HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in the hardest-hit countries, which, of course, are mainly sub-Saharan Africa.

And I've had the opportunity to visit in Africa a number of PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, programs. And I'm going to go back again the last week of this month to four countries in Africa. And so what I have the chance to do when I visit is to let the American people know what they're doing through their government, through USAID, through PEPFAR and other programs, to try to both prevent and treat AIDS and malaria and tuberculosis.

But also, the United States is the largest contributor to the Global Fund. And I know that your funding -- some of your funding for AIDS treatment and testing comes from the Global Fund. So you have been very successful in Bulgaria in not letting an epidemic really even start. You've kept your numbers of patients with AIDS to a very, very low number. So you're a good example for other countries.

So that's what I want to hear about.

END 10:17 A.M. (Local)