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.
A roadmap for fighting AIDS
The Call to Action isn't afraid to get down to specifics: It endorses the Open Society Institute's recently released Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the United States, which outlines the major guidelines any national strategy will need to follow to be successful. They include:
The report was authored by Chris Collins, who says the CDC's aforementioned plan failed because there was too little accountability and support from people with HIV/AIDS and their providers. "For this to be meaningful, people affected by this disease need to be engaged and feel engaged," Collins said. According to Collins, the most important element of any national strategic play will be setting the right priorities. "It's easier to talk about how we can hand out the money in a way where the most regions can get the most resources, but we need to look at it strategically: Are there places where incidents are particularly high? Are there places where a particularly high percentage of people aren't getting care?" he said.
If U.S. leaders don't heed their own advice about furnishing a longterm blueprint for fighting AIDS, the consequences could be disastrous. "The nation didn't have a cogent strategy for addressing Katrina," Munar said. "And the same is true for so many persistent problems. We can't expect to get anywhere without a basic roadmap."
Want to find out more about the Call to Action or sign on? Go to nationalaidsstrategy.org, where you can voice your support as an individual or organization.