By Ambassador Alfonso E. Lenhardt
Every year on December 1, the global community commemorates World AIDS Day. It is a day to reflect on lives lost, and lives forever changed, as a result of AIDS. It is also an opportunity to pay tribute to more than 34 million people living with HIV worldwide. Today, we celebrate those lives saved and improved in Tanzania and recommit to the fight against AIDS.
Working together, the international team that is formed has made significant strides in Tanzania, the region and throughout the world in combating HIV/AIDS. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) World AIDS Day 2011 report shows that the total number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped by more than 26% since the height of the epidemic in 1997, and the global number has dropped by 21%. In Tanzania, as of September 2011, the United States through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is currently supporting life-saving antiretroviral treatment for 287,193 men, women and children. In fiscal year 2011 alone, PEPFAR directly supported 1,227,693 people in Tanzania with care and support programs, including 368,064 orphans and vulnerable children. Its efforts around prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs have allowed 1,436,049 pregnant women to be reached with HIV testing and counseling.
The effectiveness of our combined efforts was demonstrated during the June 2011 visit of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Buguruni Health Center in Dar es Salaam. She shared her impression of this visit in her speech, "Creating an AIDS-Free Generation", on November 8, 2011:
[There] I met a woman living with HIV who had recently given birth to a baby boy. She had been coming to the clinic throughout her pregnancy for medication and information because she desperately wanted her boy to get a healthy start in life, and most especially, she wanted him to be born HIV-free. When we met, she had just received the best news she could have hoped for. Her son did not have the virus. And thanks to the treatment she was getting there, she would live to see him grow up.
Working with Tanzania, we are embracing smart investments to save more lives like that of the new mother and her child at Buguruni. Treatment – to save the lives of those infected, to prevent infection of others, and to prevent orphanhood by keeping parents alive – is a key evidence-based intervention, along with prevention of mother-to-child transmission, voluntary medical male circumcision, and HIV testing. In all we do, we are focusing on using our resources as effectively and efficiently as possible to maximize the human impact of our investments and save more lives. President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative is using health systems built through PEPFAR to address public health challenges in a more integrated and comprehensive way.
In Tanzania, for instance, PEPFAR is strengthening 63 nursing schools throughout the country by improving access to up-to-date educational resources and helping schools transition from theoretical learning to more hands on training. This Nursing Initiative is increasing knowledge and skills for students to be better prepared in their work across the spectrum of diseases, including but not limited to HIV and AIDS, building the human capacity of the entire health care system and responding to the significant shortfall of qualified health care workers in Tanzania.
On this World AIDS Day, we emphasize science as the way forward. Recent scientific breakthroughs have altered our outlook on the future of AIDS. Of particular importance was a study showing that antiretroviral treatment reduces the likelihood of transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner by a remarkable 96%. For the first time, with this and other tools, there is a potential path to eliminate this disease from the global landscape. By using new knowledge, we can implement more effective programs to provide HIV prevention, treatment, and care to millions of people worldwide, and in communities throughout Tanzania.
Despite challenging economic times, the United States remains committed to a leadership role in the global AIDS response. Meeting the challenge of this disease will require commitment from all parties - including the governments of affected countries, donor governments, civil society, faith-based organizations, and the private sector.
Today, we recognize how far we have come in turning the tide against HIV, while acknowledging the lengths we still must travel. On this World AIDS Day, the American people reaffirm their partnership with Tanzanians in our common vision to work towards a Tanzania free of HIV.
Working together, the international team that is formed has made significant strides in Tanzania, the region and throughout the world in combating HIV/AIDS. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) World AIDS Day 2011 report shows that the total number of new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa has dropped by more than 26% since the height of the epidemic in 1997, and the global number has dropped by 21%. In Tanzania, as of September 2011, the United States through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is currently supporting life-saving antiretroviral treatment for 287,193 men, women and children. In fiscal year 2011 alone, PEPFAR directly supported 1,227,693 people in Tanzania with care and support programs, including 368,064 orphans and vulnerable children. Its efforts around prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs have allowed 1,436,049 pregnant women to be reached with HIV testing and counseling.
The effectiveness of our combined efforts was demonstrated during the June 2011 visit of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Buguruni Health Center in Dar es Salaam. She shared her impression of this visit in her speech, "Creating an AIDS-Free Generation", on November 8, 2011:
[There] I met a woman living with HIV who had recently given birth to a baby boy. She had been coming to the clinic throughout her pregnancy for medication and information because she desperately wanted her boy to get a healthy start in life, and most especially, she wanted him to be born HIV-free. When we met, she had just received the best news she could have hoped for. Her son did not have the virus. And thanks to the treatment she was getting there, she would live to see him grow up.
Working with Tanzania, we are embracing smart investments to save more lives like that of the new mother and her child at Buguruni. Treatment – to save the lives of those infected, to prevent infection of others, and to prevent orphanhood by keeping parents alive – is a key evidence-based intervention, along with prevention of mother-to-child transmission, voluntary medical male circumcision, and HIV testing. In all we do, we are focusing on using our resources as effectively and efficiently as possible to maximize the human impact of our investments and save more lives. President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative is using health systems built through PEPFAR to address public health challenges in a more integrated and comprehensive way.
In Tanzania, for instance, PEPFAR is strengthening 63 nursing schools throughout the country by improving access to up-to-date educational resources and helping schools transition from theoretical learning to more hands on training. This Nursing Initiative is increasing knowledge and skills for students to be better prepared in their work across the spectrum of diseases, including but not limited to HIV and AIDS, building the human capacity of the entire health care system and responding to the significant shortfall of qualified health care workers in Tanzania.
On this World AIDS Day, we emphasize science as the way forward. Recent scientific breakthroughs have altered our outlook on the future of AIDS. Of particular importance was a study showing that antiretroviral treatment reduces the likelihood of transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner by a remarkable 96%. For the first time, with this and other tools, there is a potential path to eliminate this disease from the global landscape. By using new knowledge, we can implement more effective programs to provide HIV prevention, treatment, and care to millions of people worldwide, and in communities throughout Tanzania.
Despite challenging economic times, the United States remains committed to a leadership role in the global AIDS response. Meeting the challenge of this disease will require commitment from all parties - including the governments of affected countries, donor governments, civil society, faith-based organizations, and the private sector.
Today, we recognize how far we have come in turning the tide against HIV, while acknowledging the lengths we still must travel. On this World AIDS Day, the American people reaffirm their partnership with Tanzanians in our common vision to work towards a Tanzania free of HIV.
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