The international AIDS community is buzzing with anxiety over unconfirmed reports that the Obama administration may hold down US financing for international AIDS programs that need greatly increased support. We hope that the new budget blueprint to be released this week will leave enough room to grant these and other vital health programs the money they need. Just last year, we celebrated passage of a bill that authorised spending $48 billion over five years to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through bilateral agreements with hard-hit countries, a substantial increase over past efforts.

AIDS activists fear that the Obama administration is now planning to ask for only slightly more than that for the fiscal 2010 budget and will also hold American contributions to the global fund well below the levels that program is seeking. We recognise that the new administration is searching for ways to stimulate the domestic economy and slow the erosion of jobs.

But there are strong arguments for why the US should do a lot more, to help fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world. Improving the health systems of impoverished countries would help burnish our tarnished image and it would contribute to our security by lessening the risk of importing infectious diseases.