Clinton expected to urge U.S., other countries to intensify HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in speech on Tuesday

Nov 9 2011

In a speech to be delivered at the NIH, "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to call Tuesday for a new push by the U.S. and other countries to harness recent science to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic," the Wall Street Journal reports. She is expected to call for preventive tools "to be widely implemented in countries where the pandemic continues to rage, and to ask donors to step up aid to intensify the response, according to people briefed on the speech," the newspaper writes.

"Modeling done by scientists shows that combining HIV prevention methods -- including the use of condoms, male circumcision, medicines to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child, and putting more infected people on AIDS drugs -- can lead to a sharp drop in the number of new HIV infections," the WSJ notes, adding, "Any scale-up in prevention efforts will require new funding, but the global economic crisis has slowed donations." According to the news service, "Both the House and the Senate are considering appropriations for global health, including for HIV/AIDS, that are below President Barack Obama's request for fiscal 2012. That could mean a slight reduction in funding from fiscal 2011, said Jennifer Kates," vice president and director of Global Health and HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation (McKay, 11/8).