AS THE post-mortem is done on the Bush presidency, there is one remarkably bright spot in the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world - the program known as the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. In 2003, the Bush administration and Congress took the visionary step to commit an unprecedented level of resources for HIV prevention and care in the world’s poorest and most heavily AIDS-burdened countries. The $15 billion, five-year initiative had the bold goals of treating 2 million people living with AIDS and preventing 7 million new infections by 2008.

By the end of last year, those goals had been surpassed. More than 2.1 million men, women, and children had received life-saving antiretroviral treatment through PEPFAR. The program had also supported a wide range of prevention initiatives, including community outreach programs that reached nearly 60 million people, distribution of more than 2.2 billion condoms, and programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV during nearly 16 million pregnancies. The United States has led the way for rich countries in the world to bring major resources to bear against the AIDS pandemic, both through the creation of PEPFAR and as the major contributor to the multilateral Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Read more…

Source: The Boston Globe