HIV/AIDS advocate Bryden praises nomination of former Clinton official Goosby to global AIDS coordinator post

HIV/AIDS advocate David Bryden of the Center for Global Health Policy on Tuesday praised President Obama's nomination of Eric Goosby as Global AIDS Coordinator, VOA News reports.

Congressional hearings to confirm Goosby's nomination are expected to take place over the next few weeks, according to VOA News.

The Obama administration has "chosen someone with a lot of experience, not only in HIV/AIDS policy, but in actual implementation of HIV/AIDS programs, from Rwanda to Eastern Europe," Bryden said. Bryden added that Goosby favors treatment approaches that integrate HIV treatment with treatment for other diseases such as tuberculosis or malaria. Goosby has "done a lot of work that comes to looking at how to improve U.S. investments in health systems and better integrate HIV care with TB care, which is really, really important, because those two things really need to go together," Bryden said.

He added that Goosby will play a major role in next year's appropriations for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and noted that the direction of U.S. HIV/AIDS policy is unclear following Obama's first 100 days in office. Bryden said that HIV/AIDS programs have "been in a kind of holding pattern, unfortunately, while President Obama has tried to select this official," adding that the HIV/AIDS advocacy community has not "seen much talk about HIV/AIDS from the administration or much action for that matter in terms of maintaining the level of commitment and the momentum in the program.

According to Bryden, details of Obama's budgeting priorities for HIV/AIDS should be released over the next few weeks as the administration and lawmakers begin to discuss the fiscal year 2010 budget. Bryden also said he hopes the economic downturn will not prompt the administration to shift HIV/AIDS funding to other issues (Lesser, VOA News, 4/29).