Watch the video, listen to the podcast or read the transcript.

Visit Black AIDS Institute´s Youtube page.

MEXICO CITY -- Former President Bill Clinton, who has focused much of his private foundation activities on AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, acknowledged Monday that much work still needs to be done in the United States and indicated his foundation will now shift some of its resources to the domestic front, especially targeted for African-Americans.

"For Americans, this should be a wake-up call," Clinton told an enthusiastic audience. "Even as we fight the epidemic globally, we must focus at home. And I intend to do so with my foundation."

Fresh from a tour of Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda and Senegal, Clinton made his comments at the 17th biennial International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. He spoke days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that it has been underestimating the number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by 40 percent.

Citing new advanced technology that allows better counting, the CDC said approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occur each year, not the previously announced 40,000.

In announcing the updated figure, Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, STD, and TB Prevention, said: “This new picture reveals that the HIV epidemic is –and has been – worse than previously known and underscores the challenges in confronting this disease.”

The United States has been widely praised for leading the global effort against AIDS. But it has been strongly criticized for not devoting enough attention to the growing problem at home.

Clinton cited a new report by the Black AIDS Institute that called for more funding at home.

The report, titled “Left Behind,” noted that in 2005, U.S. spending on AIDS globally increased by 21 percent while domestic spending on AIDS remained unchanged. In 2006, global spending increased by 22 percent and domestic spending decreased by.4 percent. In 2007, international spending grew by 46 percent while domestic spending increased by only 2.5 percent. This year, global spending is projected to increase by 34 percent while domestic spending increases only by 1.2 percent.

“Black communities throughout the United States continue to bear a disproportionate share of the AIDS epidemic,” the report says. “More than 500,000 Black Americans are living with HIV, and more than 20,000 or more become infected each year. Blacks living with HIV have an age-adjusted death rate more than twice as high as HIV-infected whites.”

Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, said Clinton’s pledge of help was long overdue.

"I have been extremely disappointed with the Clinton Foundation, especially with it being headquartered in Harlem of all places, that it has been silent on this issue," Wilson said. “It is appropriate that President Clinton is committed to taking this on."

During his two terms in office, Clinton tripled the AIDS budget to $237 million for relief programs, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation President Bush increased AIDS to $6 billion in 2008.

Still, Clinton indirectly criticized the Bush administration while praising Mexico for allowing universal access to anti-retroviral therapies. He said, "Hopefully, our neighbors to the north will follow."

"AIDS is a very big dragon," Clinton, who flew overnight from Africa to participate in the conference, said. "This dragon must be slain by millions and millions of foot soldiers."