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August 23, 2007
PLANNING WHAT WE PREACH
by David Thorpe
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I forgot to write my national strategic plan to fight AIDS! |
Pop quiz!: Which of the following countries lacks a national strategy to deal with HIV/AIDS?
a) South Africa
b) Bulgaria
c) Botswana
d) United States of America
Sadly, if you guessed "D," you are correct. The United States requires all of the other above countries to create a national blueprint in order to receive funds from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
In our own country, no such plan has existed since the little-heeded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV Prevention Strategic Plan lapsed in 2005. With 40,000 new infections a year and nearly half of them among African-Americans, we could use a little strategic planning. Over the years, an extensive patchwork system has been built up to provide HIV prevention and treatment, but that's exactly what it is—a patchwork, one that lets hundreds of thousands of people fall through its holes.
The precarity of the situation has finally led some 50 HIV/AIDS organizations to sign on to the National AIDS Strategy: Call to Action, a campaign to convince elected officials to create a comprehensive plan to address HIV/AIDS in the U.S. Housing Works has signed on as has Gay Men's Health Crisis, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the National Association of People with AIDS and the National Minority AIDS Council.
"To ask other countries to have a plan and not do it ourselves is hypocrisy," said Christine Campbell, Housing Works director of national advocacy. "And just like the countries that get PEPFAR money, we need a plan so that we can hold everyone involved accountable for achieving its goals." David Munar, associate director of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, points out that the timing of the Call to Action isn't an accident. "The '08 election is only a year and a half away. Now is the time to let officials who are running for office know that we need the next federal government to take this on and write this plan," Munar said...
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