Happy “Leap Year Day!”
An impressive Mosque in Senegal
Hello there and “Happy Leap Year Day!” As we have to wait 4 years for another one I hope that today has been good to you. Quite a few things to point out to you today. First, this week’s Lancet Student podcast is now up where Richard Lane-Lancet web editor-and I have a chat about the highlights of the last couple of weeks. And I also want to draw your attention to two fantastic peer-reviewed articles that we have just published. David Ansari who is currently a Fullbright scholar in Senegal discusses the stigma of HIV/AIDS and the role of religion in that country. You may find his interviews with some Imams very interesting. I certainly did. And Farah Apoo discusses the management of TB in the UK and Malaysia as she has had the opportunity to be on clinical placement in both countries. And also please note that this week’s Lancet Digest is now. Of particular note is a special report on the Russian election. In his last years in office, President Vladimir Putin ploughed billions of dollars into Russia’s ailing health system, investing in high-tech medicine and hospitals. But Russia’s next president will have to do more than that to address the country’s mortality crisis as Helen Womack reports.
Finally, as promised in this week’s podcast, here is an update on the v important PEPFAR reauthorisation courtesy of Stephanie Devita from the University Coalition for Global Health. For more information please see here but for now Over to Stephanie. Thanks and have a great weekend-Rhona
From Stephanie Devita
“The House FINALLY sent PEPFAR II to mark up. The bipartisan bill passed committee with a supportive voice vote and will now move onto the floor.
However, the bill that was passed on Wednesday was a “compromised bill”, which essentially means that the democrats opened dialogue with the republicans the night before markup and created a bipartisan bill that all sides could support. The compromise text includes more than 95% of the language contained in the Democratic draft of the 5-year reauthorization legislation. However, this new legislation has the support of Foreign Affairs Acting Chairman Howard Berman, Ranking Republican Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and the White House. The legislation contains groundbreaking provisions which move the Global HIV/AIDS program beyond the “emergency” phase of implementation to “sustainability”, dramatically boost HIV/AIDS programming related to women and girls, strengthen health systems in countries hard-hit by the HIV virus, authorize HIV/AIDS programs to include linkages to food and nutrition, education and health care programs, and increase U.S. contributions to the Global Fund.
Cool things in the bill:
• Reauthorization level of $50 Billion over the next 5 years for Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria initiatives.
• Training and retention of 140,000 new health care professionals and workers.
• Removal of the 1/3 abstinence until marriage funding earmark that applies to global HIV/AIDS prevention funding. Instead, the Administration will be directed to promote a “balanced” prevention program in target countries, including all elements of the Abstinence, Faithfulness, and Condoms (ABC) approach towards HIV prevention. The Administration will also be required to report to Congress if behavioral change programs, such as abstinence and fidelity, do not receive 50% of the funds devoted to the prevention of sexual transmission of HIV in countries in which there is a generalized HIV epidemic (currently, 33% of all HIV prevention funds in all countries - a much larger pot of funds - must be spent on abstinence). The 50% figure triggers a report, and is not an earmark governing the expenditure of funds.
Not so cool things in the bill:
• The compromise text returns to existing law related to the so-called “prostitution pledge”.
• The bipartisan bill contains new benchmarks for U.S. contributions to the Global Fund, but does not contain a funding penalty if the benchmarks are unmet.
Overall, this is a good bill that is working to take PEPFAR in a more comprehensive and evidence based direction. Thank you to all of you who helped support this effort! Stephanie Devita: sdevita@globalhealth.org