Twenty years in the past at this time, President George W. Bush introduced the creation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction (PEPFAR). Since that historic announcement, the individuals of america supplied greater than $100 billion to avoid wasting greater than 25 million lives and contributed to the resilient public and neighborhood well being methods for at this time and the long run. Working with accomplice governments, multilateral and regional establishments, individuals dwelling with HIV/AIDS, NGOs, and different stakeholders, we’re assured that we will proceed that progress and get rid of HIV/AIDS as a public well being menace by 2030.
With bipartisan assist from the U.S. Congress and the generosity of the American individuals, PEPFAR has supplied over 20.1 million individuals with life-saving HIV remedy in over 55 international locations. These efforts have constructed, and proceed to construct, a stronger well being infrastructure in lots of international locations, enhancing well being safety and responses to different well being crises akin to COVID-19, mpox, and Ebola.
Nevertheless, we all know that progress in ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic could be simply reversed with out targeted, sustained, and equitable motion. We can not obtain our objective to finish HIV/AIDS as a worldwide well being menace if we deny individuals’s rights or if we enable stigmatization and discrimination towards individuals dwelling with HIV/AIDS or those that are most susceptible to buying HIV. As President Biden declared on World AIDS Day 2022, “[W]e lastly have the scientific understanding, remedies, and instruments to construct an AIDS-free future the place everybody – regardless of who they’re, the place they arrive from, or whom they love – can get the care and respect they deserve.” Our Administration is dedicated to making sure all LGBTQI+ people are handled with dignity and respect, closing pernicious gender gaps, and ending HIV/AIDS as a public well being menace by 2030. It’s incumbent upon us to keep up progress, observe the science, and handle disparities and inequitable entry to attain our shared objectives.
Thanks to the many individuals internationally who’ve helped PEPFAR succeed over the earlier twenty years and who’re becoming a member of me at this time in recommitting to finish HIV/AIDS as a public well being menace by 2030. We look ahead to marking PEPFAR’s twenty years of influence all through 2023.