Blueprint Released for HIV Prevention Efforts

Posted by on July 26, 2002

[Philanthropy News Digest]

Global HIV Prevention Working Group Releases Blueprint for HIV Prevention Efforts

The Global HIV Prevention Working Group, convened earlier this year by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ( http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ ) and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation ( http://www.kff.org/ ) and comprising nearly forty of the world’s leading HIV prevention experts, has released a blueprint designed to help prevent millions of new HIV infections by the end of the decade.

The report, Global Mobilization for HIV Prevention: A Blueprint for Action, was released in conjunction with a new HIV study conducted by a group that includes UNAIDS ( http://www.unaids.org/ ), the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/ ), and the U.S. Census Bureau ( http://www.census.gov/ ). The study estimates that an additional 45 million people will become infected with HIV by 2010, but also says that as many as 29 million of those cases could be prevented with aggressive prevention efforts.

The working group’s blueprint calls for spending on HIV testing, behavioral change programs, condom distribution, mass media campaigns, counseling, and school and workplace programs to quadruple to $4.8 billion by 2004. Similar prevention efforts in the U.S. have cut annual HIV infections by two-thirds since the mid-1980s. Several countries in Africa, Asia, and South America have also seen positive results from comprehensive prevention programs.

“There is clearly a major gap in access to prevention worldwide,” said Helene D. Gayle, director of the Gates Foundation’s global HIV/AIDS program and co-chair of the working group. “While we treat those infected, while we search for a vaccine, we have to embark on an unprecedented expansion of existing, proven HIV prevention programs…. We have a moral imperative both to prevent millions of new HIV infections and to care for those who are already infected.”

“Leading AIDS Experts Call for Major Expansion of HIV Prevention.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release 07/04/02.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globalhealth/hivaidstb/hivaids/announcements/announce-020704.htm

http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=9700024