PEPFAR stresses effective partnerships in global AIDS fight
Surya B. Prasai
May 25, 2008
One of the biggest successes of the US President´s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief(PEPFAR) has been its ability to help developing countries caught in the AIDS crises to overcome problems through effective partnership development. In fact, on December 1, 2007, many Americans were impressed to see in front of the White House lawns a Big Red Ribbon, which seemed to extend faraway to foreign countries with the message that there is still hope in the fight against AIDS.
PEPFAR is already described by US senators and congressmen as one of the most successful bipartisan foreign policy initiatives in history, helping not only the 15 most affected countries but others that have a probability of rising AIDS cases in the future. The 2007 U.S. government theme for World AIDS Day commemoration was "The Power of Partnerships" which highlighted the successes and future promise of effective global networking and collaboration to fight AIDS. The US State Department´s Global AIDS Coordinator´s office has been developing effective strategies, community mobilization initiatives, innovative e-learning platforms, informatics integrated health systems and cross country strategic programming that places a high priority on public-private partnerships, and innovative and practical interventions required by the global community to deliver on AIDS impact mitigation.
Recently, the US Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Mark Dybul´s office has introduced new insightful partnership projects such as the Phones for Health to develop national level monitoring systems, the Becton Dickinson partnership to strengthen laboratories; and other partnerships with Microsoft Corporation, INTEL, CISCO, and other private sector operations that seek to increase the AIDS awareness outreach visibly through proper engagement of information, communications and technology development. These efforts will help realize in future, leadership that is supportive of global AIDS prevention, emphasize the need to work together, the American people with the rest of the world, and to achieve better and far reaching results in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
According to UNAIDS and various non profit reports, in 2008 the number of funding and implementing partners in HIV/AIDS prevention dramatically increased with more of the principal global philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation, Merck Company, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation involved pro-actively in dispensing money and technical expertise to where it should belong, the highly impoverished countries where AIDS thrives. President Bush´s recent five nation tour to Africa served as another eye awakener to the generosity of U.S. foreign assistance to help fight one of the world´s most infectious diseases that still poses a major threat to global progress, prosperity and good health, particularly in the 15 highly affected countries and another 100 more countries that are receiving assistance under the UN Global Fund, some of the money which is U.S. funded. President Bush remarked on World AIDS Day 2007, "The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated.... By working together, we can give hope and comfort to millions." According to the 2007 December revised estimates from UNAIDS, there are an estimated 33.2 million people living with HIV with 6,800 new daily infections and 5,700 people deaths due to AIDS.
President Bush´s courageous crusade in highlighting global AIDS awareness through PEPFAR must be lauded as an extraordinary commitment of the United States to serve the deprived populations in the developing countries. Thus, PEPFAR´s new funding of US$ 50 billon from the U.S. House has made it talkable, walkable and doable for American and global experts to forge a more dynamic and intensive alliance, including developing more viable public-private partnerships to work to prevent AIDS in the target countries. The generous American assistance has also made it possible for millions of those infected with the virus to receive accessible services within their local community and to know how prevention, care and treatment can change the battle against AIDS.
The results that PEPFAR has revealed on its website are quite impressive. Ambassador Dybul speaking recently in the US House stated ,"In rolling out the largest international public health initiative in history, we have acted quickly. While financial information lags a quarter and timing of appropriations varies from year to year, we have still been able to obligate 94 percent of the funds appropriated to PEPFAR so far, and outlayed or expended 55 percent of them. But success is not measured in dollars spent: it is measured in services provided and lives saved." Ambassador Dybul mentioned," PEPFAR-supported programs have reached tens of millions of people with prevention messages. The U.S. Government has shipped more than 1.9 billion condoms worldwide, more than all other developed countries combined." He stated that PEPFAR had supported antiretroviral prophylaxis in more than 827,000 pregnancies, preventing an estimated 157,000 infant HIV infections. In fact, five of the focus countries have greater than 50 percent coverage of pregnant women – the goal of the President´s International Mother and Child Prevention Initiative (which preceded the Emergency Plan) – and Botswana has achieved a 4 percent national mother-to child transmission rate, which approximates that of the U.S. and Europe.
According to PEPFAR, with Emergency Plan support, focus countries have scaled up their safe blood programs, and 11 of them can now meet fifty percent of their annual demand for safe blood – up from just four of the focus countries when PEPFAR started. PEPFAR has supported HIV testing and counseling for more than 33 million people, and supported care for more than 6.6 million, including more than 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children infected and affected by HIV. And through September 2007, PEPFAR supported antiretroviral treatment for approximately 1.45 million men, women, and children worldwide. Of these, approximately 1.36 million are in the 15 focus countries, and more than 1.33 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, some of the countries such as Botswana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia have been able to make real achievements in their uptake in antiretroviral treatment. Most PEPFAR results data have consistently proven reliable and in consonance with targets set.
While in 2008, it appears that HIV prevalence has somewhat leveled off in Africa, including peak epidemic countries such as Botswana and Southern Africa, PEPFAR´s fight is not over. The prevalence rates are only slowly declining in sub-Saharan Africa, while threats still exist in South Asia and the CIS states. More concentric focus is needed in these regions. The achievements of PEPFAR must also be taken as a tribute to the serious nature of US investments in making sure that AIDS does not become an unknown enemy that drastically kills millions of human beings each year with no known treatment. AIDS deaths and their prolonged social, economic and demographic negative effect in lessening productivity and growth are well known to the global community. But PEPFAR´s power of partnerships to reduce the numbers of infected must be emphasized in dealing with the global AIDS crises in future. Thus, the scope and complexities of the global AIDS epidemic demands total dedication, increasing competence and enhancing capabilities in helping the communities affected. As PEPFAR has shown through its global interventions, it requires that the national technical and health institutions be fully aware of the problem and be able to help everyone who needs information, or has come for AIDS treatment. In countries with full-blown AIDS epidemic, what is required still is moral and social resilience in leadership at the highest level to be able to accept the vulnerability of the large number of deaths as a result of AIDS, and also to find out the local determinants to roll it back. The new stress therefore is on more effective prevention tying the communities to the nation and the nation to an international chain of AIDS prevention networks. Don´t forget, AIDS is today the world´s sixth largest killer disease in human history and a major challenge to global health experts still.
PEPFAR is already described by US senators and congressmen as one of the most successful bipartisan foreign policy initiatives in history, helping not only the 15 most affected countries but others that have a probability of rising AIDS cases in the future. The 2007 U.S. government theme for World AIDS Day commemoration was "The Power of Partnerships" which highlighted the successes and future promise of effective global networking and collaboration to fight AIDS. The US State Department´s Global AIDS Coordinator´s office has been developing effective strategies, community mobilization initiatives, innovative e-learning platforms, informatics integrated health systems and cross country strategic programming that places a high priority on public-private partnerships, and innovative and practical interventions required by the global community to deliver on AIDS impact mitigation.
Recently, the US Global AIDS Coordinator, Ambassador Mark Dybul´s office has introduced new insightful partnership projects such as the Phones for Health to develop national level monitoring systems, the Becton Dickinson partnership to strengthen laboratories; and other partnerships with Microsoft Corporation, INTEL, CISCO, and other private sector operations that seek to increase the AIDS awareness outreach visibly through proper engagement of information, communications and technology development. These efforts will help realize in future, leadership that is supportive of global AIDS prevention, emphasize the need to work together, the American people with the rest of the world, and to achieve better and far reaching results in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
According to UNAIDS and various non profit reports, in 2008 the number of funding and implementing partners in HIV/AIDS prevention dramatically increased with more of the principal global philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation, Merck Company, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation involved pro-actively in dispensing money and technical expertise to where it should belong, the highly impoverished countries where AIDS thrives. President Bush´s recent five nation tour to Africa served as another eye awakener to the generosity of U.S. foreign assistance to help fight one of the world´s most infectious diseases that still poses a major threat to global progress, prosperity and good health, particularly in the 15 highly affected countries and another 100 more countries that are receiving assistance under the UN Global Fund, some of the money which is U.S. funded. President Bush remarked on World AIDS Day 2007, "The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated.... By working together, we can give hope and comfort to millions." According to the 2007 December revised estimates from UNAIDS, there are an estimated 33.2 million people living with HIV with 6,800 new daily infections and 5,700 people deaths due to AIDS.
President Bush´s courageous crusade in highlighting global AIDS awareness through PEPFAR must be lauded as an extraordinary commitment of the United States to serve the deprived populations in the developing countries. Thus, PEPFAR´s new funding of US$ 50 billon from the U.S. House has made it talkable, walkable and doable for American and global experts to forge a more dynamic and intensive alliance, including developing more viable public-private partnerships to work to prevent AIDS in the target countries. The generous American assistance has also made it possible for millions of those infected with the virus to receive accessible services within their local community and to know how prevention, care and treatment can change the battle against AIDS.
The results that PEPFAR has revealed on its website are quite impressive. Ambassador Dybul speaking recently in the US House stated ,"In rolling out the largest international public health initiative in history, we have acted quickly. While financial information lags a quarter and timing of appropriations varies from year to year, we have still been able to obligate 94 percent of the funds appropriated to PEPFAR so far, and outlayed or expended 55 percent of them. But success is not measured in dollars spent: it is measured in services provided and lives saved." Ambassador Dybul mentioned," PEPFAR-supported programs have reached tens of millions of people with prevention messages. The U.S. Government has shipped more than 1.9 billion condoms worldwide, more than all other developed countries combined." He stated that PEPFAR had supported antiretroviral prophylaxis in more than 827,000 pregnancies, preventing an estimated 157,000 infant HIV infections. In fact, five of the focus countries have greater than 50 percent coverage of pregnant women – the goal of the President´s International Mother and Child Prevention Initiative (which preceded the Emergency Plan) – and Botswana has achieved a 4 percent national mother-to child transmission rate, which approximates that of the U.S. and Europe.
According to PEPFAR, with Emergency Plan support, focus countries have scaled up their safe blood programs, and 11 of them can now meet fifty percent of their annual demand for safe blood – up from just four of the focus countries when PEPFAR started. PEPFAR has supported HIV testing and counseling for more than 33 million people, and supported care for more than 6.6 million, including more than 2.7 million orphans and vulnerable children infected and affected by HIV. And through September 2007, PEPFAR supported antiretroviral treatment for approximately 1.45 million men, women, and children worldwide. Of these, approximately 1.36 million are in the 15 focus countries, and more than 1.33 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, some of the countries such as Botswana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia have been able to make real achievements in their uptake in antiretroviral treatment. Most PEPFAR results data have consistently proven reliable and in consonance with targets set.
While in 2008, it appears that HIV prevalence has somewhat leveled off in Africa, including peak epidemic countries such as Botswana and Southern Africa, PEPFAR´s fight is not over. The prevalence rates are only slowly declining in sub-Saharan Africa, while threats still exist in South Asia and the CIS states. More concentric focus is needed in these regions. The achievements of PEPFAR must also be taken as a tribute to the serious nature of US investments in making sure that AIDS does not become an unknown enemy that drastically kills millions of human beings each year with no known treatment. AIDS deaths and their prolonged social, economic and demographic negative effect in lessening productivity and growth are well known to the global community. But PEPFAR´s power of partnerships to reduce the numbers of infected must be emphasized in dealing with the global AIDS crises in future. Thus, the scope and complexities of the global AIDS epidemic demands total dedication, increasing competence and enhancing capabilities in helping the communities affected. As PEPFAR has shown through its global interventions, it requires that the national technical and health institutions be fully aware of the problem and be able to help everyone who needs information, or has come for AIDS treatment. In countries with full-blown AIDS epidemic, what is required still is moral and social resilience in leadership at the highest level to be able to accept the vulnerability of the large number of deaths as a result of AIDS, and also to find out the local determinants to roll it back. The new stress therefore is on more effective prevention tying the communities to the nation and the nation to an international chain of AIDS prevention networks. Don´t forget, AIDS is today the world´s sixth largest killer disease in human history and a major challenge to global health experts still.
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