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Kenya seeks support from PEPFAR to expand blood transfusion centers

Kenya's Medical Services Permanent Secretary James Ole Kiyiapi announced Thursday that the government is in negotiations with PEPFAR for support in building additional blood transfusion centers in the country, Capital News reports.

29 Jun 2009

IRIN examines PEPFAR funding of IDU programs

IRIN examines a recent comment piece in the journal Lancet that argues PEPFAR can do more to prevent the spread of HIV among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Africa (IRIN, 6/24).

24 Jun 2009

Lancet examines Obama's pledge to fight HIV/AIDS

The journal Lancet Infectious Diseases examines whether President Obama is fulfilling his campaign promises to tackle HIV/AIDS abroad and at home. Although Obama has surrounded himself "[w]ith lauded experts … concerns have been raised by activists that investment plans are not matching up to the rhetoric," Lancet writes.

24 Jun 2009

NewsHour features two health experts on President Obama's global health initiative

On the NewsHour Insider Forum, Ray Suarez interviews global health experts Michele Moloney-Kitts, assistant U.S. global AIDS coordinator, and Christine Lubinski, head of the Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy about President Obama's $63 billion global health initiative.

24 Jun 2009

Senate confirms Goosby as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

The Senate on Friday confirmed President Obama's U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator nominee Eric Goosby, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Goosby - who "served previously in the Clinton administration as director of HIV/AIDS policy in the Department of Health and Human Services and as chief adviser to the president on HIV-related issues" - will now "head the U.S. strategy for addressing HIV around the world, and oversee the implementation of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief" (PEPFAR), the newspaper writes.

22 Jun 2009

PEPFAR and IDUs; economic crisis and health; human-rights and pharmaceutical companies

Although PEPFAR has helped to provide "antiretroviral therapy to 2.1 million people with HIV, almost all of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, and has spent more than US$18 billion on the continent" it has failed to reach "thousands of injecting drug users in PEPFAR countries in Africa, many of whom have HIV," according to the authors of a recent comment in the journal Lancet.

21 Jun 2009

PEPFAR funds used to encourage Swaziland couples to get tested together

CNN examines the success of an HIV testing campaign in Swaziland that urges couples to get tested together. "The nationwide initiative - funded by the United States government and implemented by global charity 'Population Services International' (PSI) - is aimed at couples because tests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status," CNN writes.

18 Jun 2009

Boston Globe examines the U.S. strategy towards global health

The Boston Globe examines the U.S. strategy towards global health aid. "President George W. Bush scored major advances in his administration's worldwide campaign against AIDS," and "[t]he Obama administration believes it can leverage Bush's successes into an assault against a much broader array of diseases that afflict poor countries," writes the Globe.

15 Jun 2009

Women, girls priority in U.S. efforts against global HIV/AIDS, Clinton tells international health experts

In a video address to international HIV/AIDS experts gathered in Namibia for the 2009 HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized the Obama administration's commitment to women and girls in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the AP/Washington Post reports.

11 Jun 2009

National survey looks at HIV/AIDS in South Africa

According to the results of a national survey conducted in 2008 and released Tuesday, HIV prevalence among South Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 dropped from "a high of 10.3 percent in 2005 to 8.7 percent last year, with the decreases most marked among teenagers," AFP/Google.com reports (AFP/Google.com, 6/9).

11 Jun 2009

Global AIDS coordinator nominee Goosby testifies before Senate committee

President Obama's choice for the State Department's global AIDS coordinator position, Eric Goosby, testified on Tuesday at a confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, VOA News reports. Goosby would work to continue PEPFAR's success, and "says he will emphasize prevention if he is confirmed by the Senate," VOA News writes.

10 Jun 2009

Opinion: Second-line ARVs in India; PEPFAR funding

The successful scale-up of services for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in India "is now at risk," write Loon Gangte, president of the Delhi Network of Positive People, and Leena Menghaney, projects manager in India for Medecins Sans Frontieres' Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, in a livemint.com editorial.

9 Jun 2009

International HIV/AIDS experts to meet in Namibia next week

Thousands of international HIV/AIDS experts will convene in Windhoek, Namibia, next week for a five-day meeting focused on HIV/AIDS, New Era reports.

5 Jun 2009

U.S. doubles annual Malawi HIV/AIDS support to $45 million

The U.S. government recently announced a commitment to double its support for Malawi's efforts to fight HIV/AIDS to $45 million annually, Xinhua reports (Xinhua, 6/2).

3 Jun 2009

HIV/AIDS advocates react to Obama's proposed global health initiative

Some HIV/AIDS advocates have voiced disappointment with the level of HIV/AIDS funding in President Obama's proposed $63 billion, six-year global health initiative, VOA News reports. According to VOA News, the advocates say that Obama has not met pledges he made as a presidential candidate, while other say that the "picture is more complicated."

20 May 2009

Obama's $63 billion global health initiative 'will sustain' PEPFAR, editorial says

"President Obama's push to reenergize the fight against the AIDS epidemic in the United States led to concern that he was going to allow U.S. global leadership in fighting the disease to languish," a Washington Post editorial says, adding, "Those fears ought to be calmed after Mr. Obama's announcement Tuesday of an initiative that will sustain" the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

7 May 2009

Obama proposes $63 billion global health initiative over six years

President Obama has proposed a $63 billion, six-year global health initiative as part of his fiscal year 2010budget, Reuters reports (Bohan, Reuters, 5/5).

6 May 2009

International community should ensure access to diagnostic, treatment services to control tuberculosis in Africa, blog entry says

Tuberculosis "remains the most common cause of adult death in some countries" even though the global health community knows "what causes" the disease, "how it spreads" and "how to treat it," Ruth McNerney of the TARGETS Consortium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine writes in the Guardian's "Katine Chronicles" blog.

5 May 2009

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.

30 Apr 2009

NIH grants will strengthen fight against HIV/AIDS-tuberculosis

The Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health today announced it will award $11.75 million over five years in grants to institutions to strengthen the fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in Haiti, Uganda and China and establish a new program in Tanzania.

16 Apr 2009