Strings attached.A key spending requirement in the act that authorizes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR/Emergency Plan) is a commitment of $15 billion over five years (2003–2008) from United States President George W. Bush to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. (PEPFAR PEPFAR President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ) hampers some programs' efforts to reach the broadest population of individuals at risk of acquiring HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. infection.(1) According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress, and thus an agency in the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. (GAO), the requirement that programs spend one-third of their PEPFAR prevention funds on interventions that promote abstinence until marriage has created several challenges for HIV prevention teams in the 15 countries that are PEPFAR's focus. Ten teams told GAO investigators that parts of the requirement were difficult to interpret and, therefore, to implement; half reported that meeting the requirement "can undermine the integration of prevention programs." And although PEPFAR emphasizes addressing local prevention needs, 17 of 20 country teams surveyed (the focus countries and five others) say that the requirement hampers their ability to do so. These 17 teams are able to comply with the requirement only at the expense of cutting expenditures on other program areas, such as reducing vertical transmission of the virus or developing prevention messages for high-risk groups high-risk group Epidemiology A group of people in the community with a higher-than-expected risk for developing a particular disease, which may be defined on a measurable parameter–eg, an inherited genetic defect, physical attribute, lifestyle, habit, . In response to the GAO report, the agencies that administer PEPFAR have agreed to collect and report information on the requirement's effect. (1.) U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Global Health: Spending Requirement Presents Challenges for Allocating Prevention Funding Under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Washington, DC: GAO, 2006. |
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