AIDS advocacy groups ask Obama to reconsider FY13 budget request for PEPFAR

"Nine global HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations sent a letter [.pdf] to President Obama Thursday asking him to rethink his fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget recommendation to slash $546 million in funding from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program," the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports. The groups, which include AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, the HIV Medicine Association, and POZ Magazine, noted the request "recommended funding the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at $1.65 billion -- keeping the U.S. on track to reach its three-year commitment of $4 billion by 2013," but in the letter stated, "[W]e must and we do strongly object to the apparent shoring up of the Global Fund budget request at the expense of the PEPFAR program. ... These two programs are synergistic and often provide complementary services to the same communities," the blog notes (Mazzotta, 3/2).