by Bob Roehr
WASHINGTON, D.C. – AIDS advocates are calling on the U.S. government to create a results-based "National AIDS Strategy," something the feds demand of other countries that it assists through PEPFAR – the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR then uses that national plan as a yardstick to allocate resources and measure accomplishments.
However, the United States never has had such a national document to address the domestic HIV epidemic – though supporters have long called for its creation. Now, they are making it the centerpiece of their political activity for the 2008 election.
The call to action was launched on Aug. 21 with a Web site that outlines the case and allows organizations and individuals to sign on as supporters.
The closest component to a national AIDS strategy was a five-year prevention plan announced with great fanfare by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2000. It boldly aimed to cut the rate of new infections in half, particularly among the hard-hit African American community.
But the CDC was muzzled from the start from promoting honest messages about sexuality – and from supporting programs such as needle exchange, which have demonstrated success in reducing the rate of new infections. And no new money was allocated. Observers gave the program little chance of meeting its optimistic goals.
Sure enough, when it expired five years later, the estimated number of new infections was unchanged at 40,000 per year, and some believe that number to be even higher. More than 1.5 million Americans have been infected with HIV, and a third of them have died.
The call to action report was developed by Chris Collins, a former aide to now-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. It describes current program activities as "fragmented and uncoordinated," both within the federal government and between it and state and local agencies.
The report's nine priorities call for setting clear goals and holding people and organizations accountable for meeting those goals.
"To ask other countries to have a plan and not do it ourselves is hypocrisy," says Christine Campbell, director of national advocacy with the New York-based group Housing Works.
David Munar, with the AIDS Foundation of Chicago adds, "Just like the countries that get PEPFAR money, we need a plan so that we can hold everyone accountable for achieving its goals.
"Now is the time to let officials who are running for office know that we need the next administration and Congress to take this on and write this plan."
