What is the greatest gift we can give a mother this Mother’s Day? There are many answers, but one is to help her live and help her children live a healthy life.

As we celebrate Mother’s Day and think about mothers around the world, the American people are working through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to make every day Mother’s Day. This program is quietly saving lives every day, restoring the health and hope of mothers and children.

Each year, nearly 400,000 children are born with HIV around the world, with sub-Saharan Africa being the most challenged region. In June of last year PEPFAR and UNAIDS joined with other partners to launch the Global Plan, an initiative to eliminate new HIV infections among children and keep their mothers alive. Its central goal is to reduce the number of new pediatric infections by 90 percent by 2015 in 22 countries which carry 90 percent of the global burden. The goal is daunting, but achievable.

Science has long established that we have the tools to push the rate of new infections of children downward dramatically. In each PEPFAR country, we prioritize a strategic combination of activities based on sound scientific evidence to maximize impact on reducing new HIV infections among children and saving lives. It is working: in 2011 alone, we supported programs that tested nearly 10 million pregnant women. Of these, more than 660,000 pregnant women were found to be living with HIV, and provision of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to these women allowed more than 200,000 infants to be born HIV-free. It’s hard to get a grip on such large numbers — 200,000 babies who now have an opportunity to live long and healthy lives. What better gift can a mother receive than giving birth to a healthy child?

Throughout my travels with PEPFAR, I’ve met incredibly inspiring women who are so grateful for this gift. In Rwanda, I learned of Theresa (PDF 284KB) and how she discovered she and her husband were HIV-positive during her third pregnancy. She immediately started on ARVs, accessed through a PEPFAR program integrated with maternal and child health services. As a result, her third and fourth children have been born HIV-free. Over this past year in Rwanda alone, we have supported these services for more than 150,000 women, and now about 90 percent of HIV-positive women deliver healthy babies in health facilities — real progress.

Our programs offer an opportunity to improve the coverage of HIV-positive women on antiretroviral treatment — keeping them healthy, while also significantly decreasing their risk of transmitting the virus to their unborn children and uninfected partners. When an HIV-positive pregnant woman enters the health care system, it provides an opportunity to link the rest of her family with highly effective prevention interventions, such as HIV counseling and testing for other family members, treatment for eligible male partners, voluntary male medical circumcision, and other life saving health services.

The science is clear, and though the road ahead will not be easy, the opportunity before us is extraordinary. We can now say, as Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton did last year, that achieving an HIV-free generation is possible. As we have learned from the 30-year history and struggle of AIDS, extraordinary things happen when we work together. By uniting around our common humanity in a spirit of sharing, in responding to a challenge in front of us, we can give a chance at a full life to children and mothers around the world. Preventing new HIV infections in children is a smart investment that saves lives, and the United States is proud to partner with countries throughout the world to champion this cause.

This Mother’s Day, let’s sharpen our resolve to ensure that mothers everywhere have children who are born HIV-free.

Editor’s Note: This entry appeared first on The Huffington Post .

I am writing from Abuja, Nigeria, where all are mourning the victims of the tragic bombings of a local newspaper’s offices here and in the city of Kaduna. Innocent lives were lost to these terrible acts of murder. At the time of the blast, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe and I were commemorating the victims of the 2011 United Nations House bombing, which also took the innocent lives of primarily the UN’s Nigerian staff.

I can’t help but reflect on the juxtapositions life sometimes presents after experiencing this tragic event. It not only occurred while we were having a ceremony for our fallen UN colleagues, but during a mission to strengthen the Nigerian plan to reduce the 72,000 pediatric HIV cases born each year. To have such a senseless loss of life, in one brief moment, made me reflect on how fragile and precious life is. And it sharpens my resolve to ensure that children born to HIV-positive mothers — and all children here — have every opportunity to reach their full potential.

With particular sadness, I join my U.S. government colleagues in extending my deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones in the bombings, and to all the people of Nigeria.

Recently, I met with my fellow Global Fund Board members in Geneva and I am buoyed by the reform that is happening at the Fund under the leadership of new General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo. As everyone knows, the United States has been pushing aggressively for reform, linking our historic pledge of $4 billion from FY 2011 — 2013 to it. I am pleased to report that while we have been encouraged by the significant reforms the Fund has been pursuing over the past year, the pace of reform has now quickened — meaning that the Fund will be able to save even more lives.

The Fund remains absolutely committed to ensuring the disbursement of approximately $10 billion in its current funding period, 2011-2013 — $2 billion more than it disbursed between 2008 and 2010. This includes money for new, ambitious programs, such as Round 10 grants , and will allow countries to continue and, in many cases, scale up, successful programs. Moreover, Mr. Jaramillo is making significant organizational changes, increasing staffing in the priority area of grant and program management by 40 percent, while streamlining other positions to ensure effective and efficient use of all staff resources. The Inspector General will continue to work diligently to crack down on any fraud and abuse that occurs in spite of the best efforts of the Fund.

As the reform occurs, we are also beginning to see others answering the Obama Administration’s call to support the Fund. On World AIDS Day, the President said, “To the global community — we ask you to join us. Countries that have committed to the Global Fund need to give the money that they promised. Countries that haven’t made a pledge, they need to do so. That includes countries that in the past might have been recipients, but now are in a position to step up as major donors.” Since then, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the Gates Foundation have all pledged their support. We are aggressively leveraging President Obama’s call for $1.65 billion in FY13, which fulfilled our groundbreaking multi-year pledge of $4 billion, in order to expand the total resources available for the fight.

A strong Global Fund is critical as we move aggressively to a sustainable response to HIV/AIDS. When PEPFAR and the Fund coordinate, our investments against AIDS are expanded both geographically and programmatically. Simply put, a strong PEPFAR requires a strong Global Fund. In many countries, the governments outline a division of labor among Global Fund, national, and PEPFAR resources. For example, in Angola and South Sudan, Fund grants support the purchase of ARV drugs while PEPFAR’s bilateral program supports health worker training and the delivery of ARVs to patients.

In Malawi, PEPFAR and the Global Fund engage in joint programming and joint financing. Together, PEPFAR and Fund-financed programs support treatment for close to 280,000 people, reaching about 70 percent of those in need. In addition, the government of Malawi targets Global Fund financing to deeply rural communities, where 85 percent of the population lives, working through district governments and local-community based organizations. PEPFAR bilateral funding is then targeted to HIV need in more urban populations. Finally, PEPFAR and UNICEF, which receives Global Fund dollars, partner to address prevention of mother-to-child transmission. UNICEF purchases the drugs, while PEPFAR supports the supply chain, training, laboratory, and quality assurance needed for the program.

I am proud of the U.S. commitment to the Global Fund, in part because it is a commitment to the work of PEPFAR. We have a unique opportunity in a tight fiscal environment to support the Fund at this critical juncture. It is the right thing to do, and together, we will save and improve more lives.

Dr. Ronald Valdiserri

Introducing the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy
As announced in the Federal Register on Friday, March 16, the office formerly known as the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy will now be known as the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy (OHAIDP). OHAIDP, located within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, is responsible for coordinating, integrating, and directing the Department of Health and Human Services’ policies, programs, and activities related to HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, other infectious diseases of public health significance, and blood safety and availability.

While we remain actively and intensively involved with HIV/AIDS policy, particularly supporting and monitoring the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and staffing the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), the new name and reconfiguration of our office reflect the expansion of the scope of our responsibilities. This expansion includes supporting and monitoring the Action Plan for the Prevention, Care & Treatment of Viral Hepatitis, which has been part of our portfolio since last May when it was launched.

In addition, as of last Friday, the OHAIDP will provide analytic and administrative support to the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA). Fortunately for us, the talented HHS staff who support the Advisory Committee are also joining our office, including the Senior Advisor on Blood Safety and Availability. The ACBSA was established in 1997 and provides advice to the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health on a range of policy issues including:

• definition of public health parameters around safety and availability of the blood and blood products,
• broad public health, ethical and legal issues related to transfusion and transplantation safety, and
• the implications for safety and availability of various economic factors affecting product cost and supply.

You can read more about the ACBSA at their website.

In all of this work, we look forward to continuing our close collaborative efforts with colleagues across HHS as well as our public health partners, health professionals,  private sector, and community partners..

PACHA Staff Changes
At the same time, we are saying farewell to one colleague and welcoming a new one.

Mr. Christopher Bates, MPA, who has served as the Deputy Director of OHAP and Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), begins a detail to PEPFAR this week. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank my colleague Christopher for his service to HHS and for his commitment to addressing HIV/AIDS. Christopher joined OHAP in the second year of the Clinton Administration, bringing valuable experience and perspective from his prior work leading both the Philadelphia HIV Commission and the Washington, DC, Comprehensive AIDS Resources and CARE Consortium.

During his tenure with OHAP, Christopher led numerous initiatives and served as an important sounding board for colleagues both inside and outside the Federal government. He launched and guided implementation of the Rapid Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (RARE) initiative which supported more than 60 local health departments and community-based organizations in using qualitative and quantitative tools to better understand behavioral drivers behind their local HIV epidemics so as to more effectively position prevention interventions to reduce rates of new infection.  Christopher also oversaw the administration of the Secretary’s Minority AIDS Initiative Fund for many years and helped conceptualize and manage both the Leadership Campaign on AIDS and the National HIV Testing Mobilization Campaign. Both of those multi-year initiatives engaged national and local partners serving communities of color and other populations disproportionately impacted by HIV in HIV education and testing activities.

For the past 10 years, Christopher has served in leadership roles at OHAP, including serving as the Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. During his tenure he’s  been involved in all of our office’s key activities, including working to develop a new generation of federal employees committed to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Christopher has been an important and valued advisor during my 20 months here. His breadth of experience will be a great asset to PEPFAR. My colleagues and I wish him all the best as he sets out on this new assignment.

I am pleased to announce that Ms. Kaye Hayes, MPA, has been appointed by the Secretary to serve as the Executive Director of PACHA.  Before accepting this appointment, Ms. Hayes served for nine years as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), also within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Among her responsibilities at OWH has been the formulation of budget, performance and policy initiatives for the office, as well as management improvement and strategic planning. Prior to joining the OWH staff, Ms. Hayes served as Special Assistant to then-Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher.  In this capacity, Kaye worked on many health policy initiatives and managed the immediate personal staff for Dr. Satcher. Prior to her work with the Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General, Kaye worked as the Extramural Community Liaison for the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she developed and strengthened partnerships with national, state and local organizations, including business, labor, faith community, entertainment and other non-traditional health partnerships.

Ambassador Eric Goosby

For the first time in over 20 years, the biannual International AIDS Conference will be hosted on American soil. From July 22-27, AIDS 2012 will convene scientists, health professionals, policy makers and those affected by AIDS in Washington, D.C. to assess progress to date and identify next steps in the global response.

The conference theme, Turning the Tide Together, underscores the pivotal moment in which AIDS 2012 is taking place. Recent scientific advances in HIV treatment and biomedical prevention, coupled with continued progress in scaling up key interventions in developing countries, have led to renewed hope and optimism across the globe.

In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the United States’ goal of creating an AIDS-free generation. President Barack Obama put this commitment into action on World AIDS Day with a plan to expand U.S. support for treatment to 6 million people globally.

Since AIDS was identified 30 years ago, the U.S. has played a leading role in achieving scientific progress, and in translating science into programs. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with bipartisan support from Congress and a strong commitment by President Obama, has put that science into action to save the lives of millions in the developing world. It is truly an honor to be leading PEPFAR and working closely with our implementing agencies — including the US Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and Peace Corps — to reach millions across the globe.

Evidence-based science is driving our efforts. The United States is supporting a combination of high-impact strategies that are changing the course of the epidemic. These include efforts to keep newborn children from being infected with HIV, voluntary male medical circumcision, and expanded access to antiretroviral treatment to save lives and prevent new exposure to HIV. When used in combination with each other, condoms, behavioural efforts, and other prevention tools, these interventions offer an historic opportunity to drive down the worldwide rate of new infections. Our latest results show that this is continuing to work.

In 2011, PEPFAR supported antiretroviral treatment for more than 3.9 million people. PEPFAR programs supported HIV counseling for 40 million people, and care for 13 million people, including 4.1 million orphans and vulnerable children. Last year alone, PEPFAR tested over 9 million pregnant women for HIV, reaching over 660,000 HIV-positive mothers with services to keep them alive and prevent transmission to their children. As a result, 200,000 babies were born free of HIV.

AIDS 2012 will be an opportunity to look back at the progress we have made and consider where the science will lead us to next. The conference will also be a critical venue to increase the global response to this shared responsibility, including through the Global Fund. The President has made it clear that continued strong leadership from the United States, along with heightened commitment by other partners, will allow us to seize the opportunity for dramatic progress toward an AIDS-free generation.

Co-authored by Melanne Verveer,  Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.

As we observe Women’s History Month throughout March, we celebrate the work pioneered by advocates, policymakers, and practitioners around the world to advance women’s rights. Promoting the rights of women and addressing gender inequities and gender norms are essential steps to reducing HIV risk and increasing access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services — for both women and men.

The Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are committed to advancing the rights and health of women and girls around the world. Under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, the United States has put women and girls front and center in the three pillars of our foreign policy — diplomacy, development, and defense. This is embodied in a number of Presidential and policy directives, such as the interagency Global Health Initiative, which includes a central focus on women, girls and gender equality.

Today, at the National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day event at the White House, we announced a joint S/GWI and PEPFAR initiative. We will support civil society organizations with small grants to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV), with a link to HIV prevention, treatment or care. Through this partnership, we will provide over $4.6 million in small grants to grassroots organizations in countries with a PEPFAR presence, leveraging our respective platforms in the field and creating links to address the drivers of both violence and HIV.

The White House also released a Presidential Memorandum establishing a working group to explore the intersection of HIV/AIDS, violence against women and girls, and gender-related health disparities in the United States — and will include lessons learned from our international work in this area. This is a prime example of our Administration’s commitment to advancing the agenda for women and girls, and to addressing the link between violence and health disparities, here at home.

As we move forward globally, we will continue to focus on several key objectives — including reducing GBV and coercion; engaging men and boys to address norms and behavior; increasing women and girls’ legal protection; increasing women and girls’ access to income and productive resources, including education; and ensuring gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs and services, including access to reproductive health services.

We have made significant investments to address gender as a central focus of our foreign policy and development goals, in close partnership with other U.S. agencies, partner governments, civil society, and the private sector. For example, over the last two years, PEPFAR has invested close to $155 million in responding to GBV. We have also been a big supporter of working to help identify female-controlled prevention methods, investing more than $90 million dollars over the last two years in microbicide research. And, since 2004, we have supplied over 55 million female condoms — making PEPFAR one of the largest procurers of female condoms worldwide. S/GWI has made over $5.5 million in small grants to organizations around the world working on issues from economic empowerment to GBV to political participation and leadership. From mainstreaming gender throughout all programs, to special gender initiatives at the country level, the United States is making a difference in the lives of women and girls.

We are also partners in the Together for Girls initiative — a unique partnership that brings together public, private, United Nations and U.S. agencies to address sexual violence against children, particularly girls. In Tanzania, for example, the first nationally representative survey of violence against children in 2010 found that nearly three in ten females and one in seven males experienced sexual violence prior to the age of 18. Such evidence will be used to inform future programming and guide policy priorities — including in Kenya, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Haiti, with future work planned in additional countries.

We are starting to see results on the ground. In 2011, PEPFAR supported post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection for survivors of sexual violence to over 47,000 people, nearly 34 percent more than the year before.

There is still much work ahead. But the remarkable achievements to date give us hope for the future.

The global health community lost one of its strongest champions today with the death of Representative Donald Payne. Rep. Payne was a tireless advocate for humanitarian support to developing countries, particularly in Africa. He served for 25 years in Congress and was a trailblazer for public health and human rights for people worldwide.

In 2003, Rep. Payne was an original author of the legislation to authorize the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). As the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, he remained a strong supporter of PEPFAR, and provided a vital voice in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

Speaking for the PEPFAR family to whom Rep. Payne gave so much, I offer my sincere condolences to his family, friends, staff and constituents. While we mourn his loss, we also celebrate his legacy and honor the tremendous impact that his life’s work will continue to have on millions of people around the world, from Newark to Nairobi.

Today, the Obama Administration issued the President’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2013. It demonstrates that the United States remains fully committed to the fight against global AIDS, and will meet the President’s ambitious targets for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention announced on World AIDS Day 2011. I am so proud that, even in a challenging budget environment with strict budget caps, the Administration has continued to make this work a priority.

This budget will enable PEPFAR to achieve the President’s stated goals for the program, including on prevention and supporting 6 million people on treatment by the end of 2013. As we move towards creating an AIDS-free generation, President Obama and Secretary Clinton are focused on improving and saving lives — these outcomes are the most important metric of success. The results to date speak for themselves:

• We have more than doubled the number of individuals on lifesaving antiretroviral treatment (nearly 4 million in FY 2011, up from 1.7 million in FY 2008).
• We averted 200,000 infant HIV infections in FY 2011, through increased commitment to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
• We supported care services for almost 13 million people (including 4 million orphans and vulnerable children) in FY 2011, a 55 percent increase from FY 2008.

Under this Administration, PEPFAR has matured. We’ve become more efficient, increasing the impact of our work. The FY 2013 request reflects this focus on finding efficiencies and continuing to drive down costs. By using generic drugs, shipping commodities more cheaply, task-shifting to nurses and community health workers as appropriate, and linking AIDS services to other programs (such as maternal and child health), we have dramatically decreased the per-patient cost of providing treatment and other services. We have reduced PEPFAR treatment costs per person from $1,100 to $335 per person and costs continue to fall — every dollar we invest is going farther.

The growth in country ownership of programs is another critical piece of the story. Middle income countries with PEPFAR programs have begun to increase their investments in health programs, further reducing our direct costs. South Africa is the leading example of a country that has ramped up its investment (now over $1 billion) and indicates that it will continue to do so — a key development, as it has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world.

As the PEPFAR program matures, we are able to maximize our impact based on new prevalence data and assessments of absorptive capacity. We focus resources on countries where we can have the largest impact on the HIV epidemics, and we carefully review our levels of support in countries with low HIV prevalence or where significant other resources are available. For example, we are freeing up resources by reducing programs in lower HIV prevalence countries like Ethiopia, and are eliminating support to countries like Russia (which has stated its intention to become a donor country). Kenya is an example of a mature program focused on sustainable country systems for program implementation and building up the capacity of local implementers. As a result, we are able to adjust Kenya funding to better match its capacity to absorb funds through these new mechanisms.

The President’s budget for FY 2013 requests $1.65 billion for a contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria , fulfilling his pledge to seek $4 billion over three years for the Fund. As the President has stated, the response to the global AIDS pandemic is a shared responsibility. The Global Fund is the vehicle for others to step up and increase their investments. In fact, each dollar we invest in the Fund leverages $2.50 from other donors, and we will continue to seek to leverage our donations with other partners.

In October 2010, the U.S. tied our historic multi-year pledge to the Global Fund to successful implementation of reforms that increase the impact of grants. The Fund took decisive action in adopting comprehensive reforms last year, and we are encouraged by the appointment of the Fund’s new General Manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, who has promised to advance the reform agenda as rapidly as possible. As a sign of support, the Gates Foundation has recently announced a $750 million commitment to the Fund, and Saudi Arabia has stepped up and contributed to the Fund for the first time.

I want to address any concern that our increased investment in the Global Fund may interfere with PEPFAR’s ability to reach its bilateral goals. I can say with conviction that if this was the case, we would not be doing it. Our Global Fund investment is critical to the ability of our bilateral PEPFAR program to reach its goals. These two U.S.-supported efforts on global AIDS are now truly interdependent and collaborative. We are jointly funding many country programs and specific service sites, and as we review our country PEPFAR programs, again and again we see that the success of Global Fund grants is a critical factor in the success of our work.

Saving lives is the bottom line, and to reach it, we need a strong PEPFAR and a strong Global Fund.

In their remarks in late 2011, President Obama and Secretary Clinton put forward the inspiring vision of an AIDS-free generation. With this budget, the United States will keep our commitments, and we will meet our ambitious targets.

The HHS Office of Global Affairs will host an educational forum for Federal staff with Dr. Elly Katabira, President of the International AIDS Society  (IAS) and International Chair of the XIX International AIDS Conference  (AIDS 2012), on Friday, February 10, from 1:00–2:00 p.m. Dr. Katabira will discuss the historic nature of AIDS 2012 during the forum, “AIDS 2012 and Beyond.”

The biennial conference, which is convened by the IAS in partnership with international and local (U.S.) organizations, including the U.S. government, will take place in Washington, DC, from July 22-27, 2012. The forum will be live-streamed to the public at: http://videocast.nih.gov/live.asp?live=10999.

To stay up-to-date on U.S. Government conference activities, please visit the USG @ AIDS 2012 webpage.

Last week, I was proud to participate in a significant moment in the global AIDS response. I stood with leaders of the private sector at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as they committed to join forces to reach an ambitious, yet achievable, goal — ending pediatric AIDS by 2015.

The launch of two groundbreaking initiatives — the Business Leadership Council and the Social Media Syndicate — will marshal the power of the private sector, converging business acumen, technology, and other assets to support country-led efforts to prevent new infant infections and save mothers’ lives.

This exceptional commitment by the private sector stems from the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New Pediatric Infections and Keeping Mothers Alive, launched last year by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS. The Plan’s central goal is to reduce the number of new pediatric infections by 90 percent by 2015 in the 22 countries carrying 90 percent of the global burden of vertical transmission. The science is clear — achieving a generation born HIV-free is possible. It is a smart investment that will save lives and pay dividends in many of the world’s emerging economies.

I am proud to note that in 2011 alone, PEPFAR tested nearly 10 million pregnant women. Of these, more than 660,000 pregnant women were found to be living with HIV, and antiretrovirals (ARVs) for these women allowed more than 200,000 infants to be born HIV-free. These are the highest results of any year in PEPFAR’s eight-year history.

Everyone has a role to play. By working together with the private sector, we will enhance our collective impact. Leaders in business and the media have unique core competencies that only they can bring to this effort. I commend these business and media leaders for their commitment and partnership. I also encourage other companies to join this effort, and hope that other sectors will similarly pledge to do more, and do it smarter.

As we have learned from 30 years of struggle, extraordinary things happen when we work together. By uniting around our common humanity and our shared responsibility, we can change, not just the course of the epidemic, but the course of history for families and communities around the world.

Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, leading all U.S. Government international HIV/AIDS efforts. In this role, Ambassador Goosby oversees implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as well as U.S. Government engagement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

For more information on PEPFAR, visit: www.pepfar.gov. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PEPFAR and Twitter at www.twitter.com/PEPFAR .