The global health community is all abuzz: The United States will be unveiling Thursday (Nov. 29) its blueprint to achieving an AIDS-free generation.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will unveil the blueprint at the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State department, according to a press release. She announced the blueprint at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, in July, when she also appointed U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby to lead its development.
UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe, African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Diamini-Zuma and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Ambassador Florence Ngobeni-Allen will be present at the event.
The blueprint will outline U.S. goals and objectives to achieve an AIDS-free generation. The launch is expected to be followed by a major policy announcement by the U.S. governmenton Friday, a day before World AIDS Day.
Here are other personalities and organizations making “noise” ahead of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. This year’s theme — Getting to Zero:
RED is set to go “bold” this World AIDS Day with a DANCE (RED), SAVE LIVES campaign. This will be filled with dance parties across the United States, the illumination of a number of landmark buildings around the world and an announcement from Coca-Cola, RED CEO Deborah Dugan writes in a blog post for The Huffington Post.
Singer and AIDS advocate Alicia Keys zeros in on women and girls in the fight against HIV and AIDS in an opinion piece for the Skoll World Forum. She identified the most important strategy toward an AIDS-free generation: women and girls’ empowerment.
“An AIDS-free generation depends on protecting the youngest and most vulnerable from HIV infection,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a press release. He underlined the need for the international community to boost the number of children and pregnant women tested and treated for HIV.
Ireland must not be “complacent” in the fight against HIV and AIDS, Irish Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello said at an event marking World AIDS Day. He said: “There are now more people living with HIV — including in Ireland — than ever before.” The minister also spoke of the importance of education, music and sports in protecting young people from the disease.
In an interview with ONE, Chevron’s general manager of corporate health and medical Huma Abbasi explained the reason behind the company’s decision to invest in HIV and AIDS. She said the epidemic is “strongest” in areas where Chevron has the largest operations.
“If we are to have a healthy business in these parts of the world, we need healthy employees and healthy communities,” Abbasi said.
The United States announced Wednesday (Nov. 28) plans to provide grants of up to $7.5 million to implement science projects that will help prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. Winning projects will inform the programs of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Two new World Bank studies highlight the need of sex workers and people who inject drugs to have access to better prevention, care and treatment services. Some cost-effective approaches the studies note include community empowerment and interventions, such as medically assisted therapy as well as HIV counseling and testing.
Based on current progress, the beginning of the end of AIDS will not be reached until 2022, according to a new report from ONE for World AIDS Day. The report also saw “uneven” levels of commitments from world leaders to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Apart from the report, the advocacy group will launch a series of You Tube videos featuring a number of personalities, including actors Colin Farrell and Zoe Saldana, and blogger Perez Hilton, according to a press release.
Catholic aid agency CAFOD warns of the effects of rising food prices on people taking anti-retroviral drugs. People won’t take ARVS without food. “If you take ARVs without sufficient food, they cause serious nausea, loss of appetite, increase diarrhea and vomiting, and bring severe abdominal cramps,” CAFOD’s nutrition expert in Kenya Caroline Njeri Muthiga said in a press release.
Some 40 CEOs of large companies have urged governments to repeal laws and policies that put travel restrictions on people living with HIV, according to a news release. Some of the involved companies are Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Heineken, Merck, NBA, Kenya Airways and Thomson Reuters.
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