AIDS is the greatest public health crisis of this century. As of the end of 2007, roughly 33 million people worldwide were infected with HIV; there are over two million deaths from AIDS-related illnesses each year. In many countries, the highest rates of new infections are found among women and youth, or among marginalized groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users. Unprotected sex is still the single greatest factor in the spread of HIV.
The spread of HIV goes hand in hand with a lack of human rights for women and girls and is compounded by the epidemic of gender-based violence against women. HIV can most successfully be combated when people have access to basic reproductive and sexual health services and basic human rights. And while AIDS-related illness has come to be regarded as a life-changing but manageable disease for those who can afford anti-retroviral medications, AIDS remains a death sentence for the vast majority of those in the developing world who are HIV positive.
AJWS advocates for HIV prevention, treatment and care programs that are sustainable and effective efforts to increase access to care such as early detection and treatment of TB; access to basic family planning services; and intensified efforts to respond to and reduce the incidence of gender-based violence.
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
In response to the realities of global AIDS, the US Global AIDS Act of 2003 created the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year, $15 billion initiative intended to expand prevention, treatment, and care services in countries heavily affected by HIV and AIDS. Since 2003, the US has actually invested $23 billion dollars in PEPFAR programs, well above the original amount authorized by Congress. PEPFAR has been praised for increasing access to anti-retroviral therapy, supporting roughly 1.4 million people on treatment since 2003.
But efforts to prevent new infections have fallen behind. There are seven new infections for each person put on treatment annually. A sustainable response to the AIDS epidemic requires that we invest heavily in prevention strategies aimed at those groups at greatest risk.
Yet ideologically-motivated restrictions in the original law governing PEPFAR have drastically undermined efforts to prevent new infections. One such restriction, the abstinence-until-marriage earmark, requires spending vast sums of U.S. funding on abstinence-until-marriage programs that have been discredited by numerous studies, including those by the U.S. Institute of Medicine and the Government Accountability Office.
Another restriction, the "prostitution pledge," undermines efforts to reach vulnerable groups such as sex workers. In addition, PEPFAR forbids funding of programs offering clean needle exchange to intravenous drug users, despite the fact that these programs have been proven highly effective in curbing the spread of HIV infections.
To respond to this crisis and promote an "AIDS-free generation, AJWS supports the following policies:
- Full support by the United States, the G-8 and all multilateral institutions of universal access to prevention, treatment and care by 2010
- Removal of restrictions – such as the abstinence-until-marriage earmark and the prostitution pledge – from the new Global AIDS Act currently being considered by Congress
- Dramatically increased investments in evidence-based prevention efforts, whether focused on prevention of sexual transmission, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, or harm reduction for intravenous drug users
- Integration of HIV prevention, treatment and care with basic reproductive and sexual health services
- Access for all to high-quality, affordable generic AIDS drugs
WHO/UNAIDS Report: "Towards Universal Access"
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition: "Missing the Target #5: Improving AIDS Drug Access and Advancing Healthcare for All"
- Increased support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
- Elimination of discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users;
- Dramatically increased efforts to address gender-based violence as a driver of the HIV epidemic.
Read how the AJWS 2008 Rabbinical Students' Delegation has taken a stand on PEPFAR.
Congress is now considering new legislation to spend $50 billion for global AIDS over the next five years. The new law must support comprehensive, evidence-based prevention programs tailored to meet the unique needs of each country and community or we will simply be wasting taxpayer money.
Urge your Senators and Representatives to support striking the abstinence-until-marriage earmark and the prostitution pledge from the Global AIDS Act, and support funding for programs aimed at women, youth, and other vulnerable and marginalized populations. Please act now to ensure these critical changes are made!
