Vox: I’m witnessing the near defeat of AIDS in Africa. But I fear what comes next.
Elizabeth Radin, lecturer in epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and a technical specialist at ICAP

“…Ending the [AIDS] epidemic will require us to reach people who have not yet benefited from lifesaving prevention and treatment. That will mean President Donald Trump will need to reinforce the U.S. commitment to its AIDS relief program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). … Continuity and bipartisanship have been critical to PEPFAR’s success. … Around the same time that PEPFAR started, more than 50 donor countries (including the U.S.) began pooling funds through the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. … If we build on the progress we have made and focus on reaching the people who are not yet diagnosed and treated, AIDS will be to our children what smallpox and polio are to us. But this good news also throws down a gauntlet. We cannot become fatigued and lose interest. The U.S. must stay committed to PEPFAR and the international collaboration through the Global Fund. We must build on what has been accomplished, otherwise we risk seeing the epidemic roar back. It’s our fight to win, but it’s also ours to lose — an AIDS-free generation hangs in the balance” (2/23).