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U.S. global AIDS funding faces up to 10% cuts in fiscal 2012

As we approach World AIDS Day, life-saving funding is under attack from multiple fronts, and it couldn't come at a worse time. One of the world's biggest donors, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria canceled its next round of funding, because it couldn't secure enough donations.

2 Dec 2011

Obama renews U.S. commitment to ending AIDS in World AIDS Day speech

President Barack Obama on Thursday renewed the U.S. commitment to ending HIV/AIDS in a speech marking World AIDS Day, and was joined by former presidents Bill Clinton, who participated by video, and George W. Bush, who spoke from Tanzania with that country's President, Jakaya Kikwete, the Independent reports.

2 Dec 2011

Opinion pieces, editorials recognize World AIDS Day

"This year we will hear that the first AIDS-free generation since the discovery of HIV may be a reality. But we are unlikely to hear what counts. As with every year, we are left more questions than answers," Barrett of Harm Reduction International writes before posing questions about the epidemic to several organizations.

2 Dec 2011

Viewpoints: Bush, Bono and others reflect on World AIDS Day; Coburn and Burr on Medicare savings

On this Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, the promise of progress against the disease has never been more vivid - or more fragile. ... In lean budget times, the U.S. and the developing world must prioritize. But there can be no higher priority than saving lives. And there is no better way to save lives than to support and expand effective, proven programs such as Pepfar.

2 Dec 2011

South Africa 'witnessing first steps of AIDS-free generation'

In this Business Day opinion piece, Donald Gips, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, examines progress made in the country's fight against HIV/AIDS, writing that, through the coordination of governments, civil society, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, and researchers from around the world, "we now have the tools that allow us for the first time to set the goal of achieving an AIDS-free generation -- when virtually no children are born with the virus; we have effective and comprehensive education and prevention strategies that help to reduce risk; and those who are infected with HIV have access to treatment that helps prevent them from developing AIDS and transmitting the virus."

1 Dec 2011

Treatment cost savings under PEPFAR can be re-invested to increase ARV reach

In this post in the "Health Affairs Blog," Matthew Kavanagh, director of U.S. policy and advocacy at Health Global Access Project (GAP), and Marguerite Thorp, a research assistant at Harvard Medical School, examine how HIV/AIDS treatment funding under PEPFAR has "fallen significantly since 2008 in both absolute dollars and as a portion of total budgets -- just at a pivotal moment when investment could change the course of the epidemic."

1 Dec 2011

PLoS, PEPFAR, UNAIDS publish collection of articles examining voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention

This post in the "PLoS Blog" announces the publication, in conjunction with UNAIDS and PEPFAR, of a collection of articles titled, "Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: The Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scale-Up in Southern and Eastern Africa."

30 Nov 2011

Global leaders plan next steps at Harvard on World AIDS Day

Thirty years, 30 million deaths and 60 million infections after HIV appeared, medical researchers now have the tools to halt the deadly epidemic. "We have the weapons to win the war against AIDS," says Richard Marlink, M.D., Executive Director of the AIDS Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It is time to take what we have learned to turn the epidemic around and end AIDS."

30 Nov 2011

Obama should announce scale-up of AIDS treatment programs

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent speech calling for an "AIDS-free generation" through the use of multiple prevention strategies, including more widespread antiretroviral therapy, "was a dramatic reversal of U.S. policy, which has historically viewed treatment more as a costly expense rather than our most powerful prevention investment," physician Loretta Ciraldo and Katrina Ciraldo, a student at Boston University School of Medicine, write in this Miami Herald opinion piece.

24 Nov 2011

Bloomberg examines Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative and potential impact to U.S. global efforts to tackle HIV

Bloomberg examines how a trade agreement being negotiated by leaders of the nine Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries -- Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States -- could potentially make it more difficult for people in TPP nations to get new generic drugs and may impact U.S.-led global efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS as outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a recent speech at the NIH.

24 Nov 2011

George W. Bush to travel to Africa to raise awareness about cervical, breast cancer

Former President George W. Bush will travel next month with former first lady Laura Bush and officials with the George W. Bush Institute to Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia "where they'll visit clinics and meet with governmental and health care leaders ... to raise awareness about cervical and breast cancer, an effort he calls a 'natural extension' of" the PEPFAR program launched during his presidency, the Associated Press reports.

23 Nov 2011

Partnerships, additional funding allow for expansion of PEPFAR to combat cervical cancer

In this post in the Public Health Institute's "Dialogue4Health" blog, Jeffrey Meer, director of PHI's Washington-based advocacy on global health, writes that "a significant expansion of PEPFAR's existing work to combat cervical cancer" through a partnership with the George W. Bush Institute known as Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon (PRRR); a 50 percent increase in the U.S. government's "commitment to screen and treat for this type of cancer from $20 million over five years to $30 million"; and additional funding from Susan G. Komen for the Cure "to expand breast cancer awareness and prevention among the same target population of women receiving care at PEPFAR-funded HIV service sites" has allowed "the wonderfully robust PEPFAR prevention and treatment platform, considered one of the great global health achievements in recent times, to be made available to a whole new type of prevention -- in this case for a non-communicable disease (NCD)."

23 Nov 2011

Potential cuts to global health spending threaten vision of 'AIDS-free generation'

The vision of an "AIDS-free generation" presented in a speech earlier this month by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "is under threat in Congress," as "the House and the Senate are discussing significant cuts to the 2012 Obama administration request for global health funding," Jeanie Yoon, a physician with Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece.

22 Nov 2011

PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board report offers six recommended research priorities

This post in the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog examines a report by the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) that offers six recommended treatment and prevention research priorities to U.S. Global AIDS Ambassador Eric Goosby and the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) to guide future PEPFAR programs.

19 Nov 2011

Aid targeting high mortality diseases 'lays the groundwork' for improving primary health care services

"In recent years, initiatives such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria have helped rein in some of the biggest scourges," Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

19 Nov 2011

PEPFAR announces Nursing Education Partnership Initiative for health in Africa

The U.S. government on Thursday "formally announced the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) in Lilongwe, Malawi," according to a State Department press release.

19 Nov 2011

PlusNews examines shortages of HIV treatment supplies in Swaziland

PlusNews examines Swaziland's national shortages of antiretroviral (ARV) stocks, HIV tests, and lab tests necessary to initiate and manage HIV patients on treatment, and the country's efforts to find funding to prevent stock-outs of these supplies.

17 Nov 2011

PEPFAR's commitment to eliminating gender-based violence

In anticipation of the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, a campaign which starts on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, Daniela Ligiero, senior adviser for gender at the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, reports on PEPFAR's commitment to address gender-based violence in this post in the Department of State's "DipNote" blog.

16 Nov 2011

Including evangelical Christians in U.S. foreign aid discussion

"Washington is in an era of budget-cutting, so we frequently hear calls to shrink or eliminate U.S. foreign-assistance programs," which is why "several religious groups ... are highlighting how these programs reduce global poverty and hunger, saving millions of lives," Richard Stearns, president of World Vision USA, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

11 Nov 2011

PEPFAR AIDSRelief shows success of country partnerships

Leia Isanhart Balima of Catholic Relief Services writes in this ONE blog post about the successes of the AIDSRelief program in Rwanda, and how that country's Ministry of Health has taken ownership over operations.

11 Nov 2011

PEPFAR News and Research

U.S. global AIDS funding faces up to 10% cuts in fiscal 2012

Obama renews U.S. commitment to ending AIDS in World AIDS Day speech

Opinion pieces, editorials recognize World AIDS Day

Viewpoints: Bush, Bono and others reflect on World AIDS Day; Coburn and Burr on Medicare savings

South Africa 'witnessing first steps of AIDS-free generation'

Treatment cost savings under PEPFAR can be re-invested to increase ARV reach

PLoS, PEPFAR, UNAIDS publish collection of articles examining voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention

Global leaders plan next steps at Harvard on World AIDS Day

Obama should announce scale-up of AIDS treatment programs

Bloomberg examines Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative and potential impact to U.S. global efforts to tackle HIV

George W. Bush to travel to Africa to raise awareness about cervical, breast cancer

Partnerships, additional funding allow for expansion of PEPFAR to combat cervical cancer

Potential cuts to global health spending threaten vision of 'AIDS-free generation'

PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board report offers six recommended research priorities

Aid targeting high mortality diseases 'lays the groundwork' for improving primary health care services

PEPFAR announces Nursing Education Partnership Initiative for health in Africa

PlusNews examines shortages of HIV treatment supplies in Swaziland

PEPFAR's commitment to eliminating gender-based violence

Including evangelical Christians in U.S. foreign aid discussion

PEPFAR AIDSRelief shows success of country partnerships

Industry Focus eBook - Cell biology (5th edition) eBook

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Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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