Tag: access
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Jul 7, 2010
Making Universal Access a Reality: Yes, We Have To
Recently, Foreign Policy published “ The Long Emergency ,” an analysis of the future of the United States’ HIV/AIDS programming and funding as the Obama administration reshapes its global health agenda. The photograph accompanying the article is uncaptioned but it depicts young people, presumably Africans, holding up Obama posters that say “Stop AIDS, TB & malaria. We’re halfway there. Don’t be half-hearted. Yes we can.” A reflection of the power of hope that President Obama built his campaign around perhaps, but the reality is we’re not even close to halfway. Yes, we have succeeded in providing antiretroviral therapy to 4 million people; more than half of this has been accomplished through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ( PEPFAR ). Jumpstarting treatment is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of PEPFAR, a political breakthrough that ‘forged overwhelming consensus of support’ by focusing on treatment so as to avoid ‘political flashpoints’ like condom use and abortion. Politically savvy though it might have been, PEPFAR also created a false dichotomy between HIV... Read More »
