In an effort to fight the AIDS epidemic, President Barack Obama this week unveiled a new national strategy to help reduce the number of newly infected people and improve access to health care for those living with the disease and the HIV-virus.

"The United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare and when they do occur, every person, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socio-economic circumstance, will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination,'' reads a portion of the introduction of the report, "National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Federal Implementation Plan,'' released following more than 10 months of input from people around the nation.

The strategy calls for an annual reduction of new HIV infections by 25 percent (from 56,300 to 42,225) by 2015. Also within the next five years, the administration plans to increase the proportion of newly diagnosed patients linked to clinical care within months of their HIV diagnosis from 65 percent to 85 percent (from 26,824 to 35,078 people). Additionally, officials aim to increase the proportion of blacks with undetectable viral load by 20 percent.

"This is an ambitious plan that will challenge us to meet all of the goals that we set,'' President Obama said in the executive summary of the report released on Tuesday. "The job, however, does not fall to the federal government alone, nor should it. Success will require the commitment of all parts of society, including State, tribal and local governments, businesses, faith communities, philanthropy, the scientific and medical communities, educational institutions, people living with HIV, and others.''

Phill Wilson, president and chief executive officer of the Black AIDS Institute in Los Angeles, applauded the strategy in a prepared statement released after the announcement. He saluted President Obama for placing black America front-and-center in his national HIV/AIDS strategy.

Wilson described AIDS as a black disease. While accounting for about 13 percent of the national population, blacks make up half of all new HIV diagnoses. The death rate from AIDS among black males is eight times higher than that among white males. And black women are 19 times more likely to die from the disease than white women, Wilson wrote.

"America has long required countries that receive foreign AIDS assistance to have a national strategy, but we have never had one,'' Wilson said. "With no plan in place to mandate coordination between different government agencies or to ensure accountability, it is hardly surprising that we have an HIV/AIDS epidemic 40% worse than previously believed.'' Additionally, he said 1 in 5 Americans infected with HIV don't know it and more than half do not receive regular medical care.

The strategy, however, does not address how the federal government will pay for the overall new national effort. Currently, it spends about $19 billion a year on AIDS programs in the U.S.

During the news conference, President Obama pledged to invest $30 million in new dollars to the effort and committed to working with Congress to ensure the effort continues into the future.

Still, Wilson expressed grave concerns about the lack of details regarding funding.

"Unfortunately, the new strategy does not sufficiently address the issue of resources,'' Wilson wrote in the statement. "Already, we are seeing many AIDS drug assistance programs impose caps or waiting lists for life-saving drugs. There are over 3000 people on ADAP waiting lists. And at a time when we are largely losing the fight to prevent new infections, prevention programs currently account for only 3% of federal AIDS spending. This new strategy offers a sound, evidence-based approach to better results, but it will be worth little more than the paper it is written on if we don't follow through with essential resources."