Devex: 15 years later, PEPFAR is still at war with a global epidemic
“…Descriptions of what the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief has achieved in the last 15 years often include words ‘miracle,’ and ‘unprecedented.’ The initiative has provided antiretroviral medications to more than 14 million people, saved millions of lives, and helped stave off an epidemic that threatened to consume entire countries and cripple their economies. As PEPFAR celebrates its 15th anniversary this month, perhaps even more striking is the widespread agreement among the initiative’s biggest backers that if PEPFAR does not go even further — or if political support falters — the basic mathematics of disease will bring about a new emergency, wiping out a victory that was never fully achieved…” (Saldinger/Igoe, 5/25).