Report calls for changes in US global AIDS efforts

Abstract

The US Global AIDS Initiative better known as the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has made a "strong start" but needs to place more emphasis on prevention and do more to build long-term sustainable programmes according to a new report. The report PEPFAR Implementation: Progress and Promise was prepared by a committee convened by the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) an independent agency commissioned by the US Congress to provide the government with advice on science and technology. PEPFAR must be reauthorised by Congress this autumn and the IOM report is expected to be influential in shaping the new legislation and the programmes future direction. The IOM committee examined PEPFARs activities during its first 2 years of full funding from 2004 to 2006 focusing on programme implementation not outcomes. The report found that PEPFAR has made possible a "substantial expansion of services" that has made "significant inroads into the HIV/AIDS epidemics in the focus countries". Jaime Sepulveda the committee chairman said PEPFAR "has demonstrated what many doubted could be done namely that HIV/AIDS services can be scaled up rapidly in countries with severe resource constraints and other daunting obstacles". (excerpt)