Washington ? The House on Thursday passed a $15 billion bill that would more than double U.S. contributions to the worldwide fight against AIDS.

Supporters, led by President Bush, said the money could bring relief to millions of people with AIDS and prevent the deadly disease from infecting millions more.

“It sends a message to the world that the United States will not sit idly by and allow AIDS to wreak havoc on the human family,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

The House passed the legislation by a 375-41 vote after lawmakers approved an amendment assuring that a third of the money for AIDS prevention would go to sexual abstinence programs. The president’s conservative allies insisted that abstinence get a prominent role in the AIDS effort.

The five-year spending plan is aimed specifically at sub-Saharan Africa, home to 30 million of the world’s 42 million AIDS sufferers, and the Caribbean. The United States this year is spending about $1.2 billion on international AIDS efforts.

“Not since the bubonic plague swept across the world in the last millennium, killing more than 250 million people, has our world confronted such a horrible, unspeakable curse as we are now witnessing with the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic,” said Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

“So much of what we do is really unimportant and trivial, but not today,” said Hyde, R-Ill., sponsor of the measure with Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has pledged to act quickly on a Senate bill with the goal of getting legislation to the president by the end of the month.