Today is World AIDS Day. Earlier this week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released PEPFAR’s (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) “blueprint for the AIDS-free generation.”
Earlier in November Secretary Clinton stated: "The goal of an AIDS-free generation may be ambitious, but it is possible with the knowledge and interventions we have right now. And that is something we’ve never been able to say without qualification before. Imagine what the world will look like when we succeed."
“Now, make no mistake about it: HIV may well be with us into the future. But the disease that it causes need not be. We can reach a point where virtually no children are born with the virus, and as these children become teenagers and adults, they are at a far lower risk of becoming infected than they are today. And if they do acquire HIV, they have access to treatment that helps prevent them from not only from developing AIDS, but from and passing the virus on to others.“ This is what Clinton foresees as an AIDS-free generation to be.
Secretary Clinton’s revealing of the PEPFAR blueprint comes on the heels of the UNAIDS announcement of a drop of 50% or more in the number of new HIV infections in 25 countries. Secretary Clinton also announced that the number of people being treated for HIV/AIDS is now at 5.1 million, a 200% increase since 2008. If the number of new infections continues decreasing and the number of people being treated for HIV continues increasing eventually we will be treating more people that are becoming infected. “That will be the tipping point,” states Clinton. “We will then get ahead of the pandemic, and an AIDS-free generation will be in our sight.”
To achieve this goal, PEPFAR’s blueprint is founded on the following principles:
- Make strategic, scientifically sound investments to rapidly scale-up core HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions and maximize impact.
- Work with partner countries, donor nations, civil society, people living with HIV, faith-based organizations, the private sector, foundations and multilateral institutions to effectively mobilize, coordinate and efficiently utilize resources to expand high-impact strategies, saving more lives sooner.
- Focus on women and girls to increase gender equality in HIV services.
- End stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and key populations, improving their access to, and uptake of, comprehensive HIV services.
- Set benchmarks for outcomes and programmatic efficiencies through regularly assessed planning and reporting processes to ensure goals are being met.
Using these principles, PEPFAR’s blueprint is built on several road maps—the Road Map for Saving Lives; the Road Map for Smart Investments; the Road Map for Shared Responsibility; and the Road Map for Driving Results with Science—that each “contain specific goals and comprehensive action and implementation steps” towards an AIDS-free generation.
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See the PEPFAR Blueprint Factsheet here: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2012/11/201195.htm
Read the entire PEPFAR Blueprint here: http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/201386.pdf
Read Hillary Clinton’s entire speech on the PEPFAR Blueprint here: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2012/11/201198.htm