A friend alerted me to a recent letter you ran (“U.S. must fund the Global Fund”). I saw The St. Louis American web site on Facebook and am impressed by your journalist awards and your positive pro-active stance.
One-fourth of 1 percent of our U.S. fiscal budget goes to global health. For this relative financial pittance, we can help stabilize fragile countries and increase their economic growth. Did you know that about 50 percent of our exports are purchased by developing countries? When they grow, we grow.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria generates billions of dollars in health care savings, increased economic activity, and helps establish an efficient local health care treatment structure. This actually makes us safer, because infectious diseases like TB knows no boundaries, and extremely resistant tuberculosis is on the rise in several countries.
Donna Munro
Bremerton, Washington
