Health in Developing Countries: The U.S. Response

Publication Date: February 2001

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: International relations

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Abstract:

P.L. 106-429, the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs appropriates $963 million for Child Survival and Disease program activities. Of this amount, Congress directed $295 million for child survival and maternal health, $300 million for HIV/AIDS, $125 million for other infectious diseases, and $30 million for vulnerable children. The sum also includes $110 million for UNICEF and $103 million for education. The law directs USAID to allocate up to $50 million for GAVI, an international vaccine initiative, and up to $30 million for an international AIDS Initiative and fund.

Health assistance spending has increased overall in recent years, but only in some areas of the account. Both the Administration and Congress have devoted growing amounts to programs to control HIV/AIDS and some infectious diseases, but funding for other health programs has stayed the same or declined. An October 1999 GAO report stated that USAID funding for childhood vaccination programs, for example, fell from about $53 million in the early 1990s to $47 million in FY98 and to an estimated $33 million in FY2000. USAID has been concerned in recent years that funding for such basics of health development programs as disease surveillance and building health infrastructure has also fallen. Growing alarm at the spread of new infectious diseases and the resurgence of many others due to the spread of antibiotic resistant strains has put pressure on traditional health assistance programs. How to address this situation with limited funds is the debate within Congress, the Administration and among health professionals around the world.