President George W. Bush signed into law on Wednesday a global AIDS bill that authorizes more American spending to fight AIDS pandemic, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide. Despite the fact that the amount of money which is on the verge of being allocated for that purpose is higher than he had initially wanted, Bush enthusiastically accepted the figures. His administration is ready to engage in the global effort to combat AIDS in the next five years.

"With this funding, we will support treatment for at least 3 million people," said the president while signing the bill. Nonetheless, the bill itself doesn't set a precise target.

The global AIDS bill requires $48 billion to be spent over the next five years. Most of the money will go at people living with AIDS. That means appropriations of an estimated $9 billion to $10 billion a year. However, activist groups believe that the sum surfacing from Congressional appropriations committees for fiscal year 2009 will be about half of that. If the capital would not be distributed as said, the bill may end up being “more rhetoric than reality,” as a leader of one of the advocacy groups said.

The abovementioned measure refurbishes President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is due to expire in September. The program has been credited by both Republicans and Democrats, in order to fight against the disease which only in 2007 killed about 2.1 people, including 330,000 children, and an estimated 33.2 million people lived with HIV disease around the world.