Effective HIV Prevention Programs Should Be Implemented More Widely, Report Says
"Bringing HIV Prevention to Scale: An Urgent Global Priority," Global HIV Prevention Working Group: The report found that scientifically proven HIV prevention programs, including those that aim to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission, are not being implemented on an adequate scale. This means that the programs do not reach enough people with enough intensity to curb the spread of the virus. The report recommended that global spending on HIV/AIDS double during the next three years and calls on governments and donors to ensure that funds are used for proven prevention strategies targeted at the highest-risk populations. PWG also calls for a major scale-up of global HIV prevention programs and cites new data projecting that expanded access to prevention could prevent about 30 million of the 60 million HIV cases expected to occur by 2015. In addition, PWG says that prevention efforts are not keeping pace with gains made in providing treatment to HIV-positive people. For every person who began antiretroviral therapy in 2006, six people were newly infected (PWG release, 6/28). PWG is co-convened by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A kaisernetwork.org interview with Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA and co-chair of PWG, is available online.