Two newspapers recently published an editorial and letter to the editor in response to President Obama’s $63 billion, six-year global health cfm?hint=1&DR_ID=58339″ target=”_new”>initiative. Obama’s plan calls for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to receive $51 billion over six years to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, while the remaining $12 billion would be directed to other global health issues, including pre- and post-natal care and child health initiatives. Obama’s proposal would increase FY 2010 spending on global HIV, TB and malaria to $7.4 billion, $366 million more than this year (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/6). Summaries appear below.

Editorial

• Boston Globe: The proposal “would break new ground in treating children’s infectious diseases, even as it falls short of campaign promises for major increases in overseas funding for HIV/AIDS,” the editorial says. Although HIV/AIDS advocates have “criticized” the proposal, the U.S. “can save more lives for less money in developing countries by broadening its health safety net,” according to the editorial. Obama’s plan is an “overdue acknowledgement that [developing] nations need assistance in addressing a raft of diseases and health threats,” the editorial says, adding that the “differences between the president’s campaign pledges and last week’s proposal will pale in significance if Congress reacts to the mounting budget deficits by throwing a brake on foreign aid.” The editorial concludes that “[a]ll advocates of U.S. global health spending should rally around the Obama plan, to make sure that Americans’ commitment to prevent and treat deadly diseases overseas does not fall victim to the ebb and flow of the world’s economy” (Boston Globe, 5/11).

Letter to the Editor

• Eric Friedman, New York Times: Although Obama’s proposed increases in global health spending that is not related to HIV/AIDS is “welcome,” it “fall[s] far short of the investments required to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals despite the president’s express commitment to them,” Friedman, senior global health policy adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, writes in a letter to the editor of the Times. “As the economic downturn forces the administration to rethink priorities, global health must not — and in a multitrillion-dollar budget need not — lose out,” Friedman writes, adding that if the U.S. “fails to make the necessary investments in global health, there will be needless, avoidable and extensive loss of life.” Friedman concludes, “Fiscal responsibility cannot and should not be restored at the expense of the health of the world’s poorest and most marginalized citizens” (Friedman, New York Times, 5/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

The Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group recently called on the country to launch a comprehensive harm reduction program for injection drug users in an effort to help curb the spread of HIV, Thailand’s nationmultimedia.com/search/read.php?newsid=30103711&keyword=Govt+Scheme+needed+to+help+drug+users” target=”_new”>The Nation reports. According to the group, many IDUs are unable to access drug treatment and substation therapy because of the stigma surrounding drug use in the country. Karyn Kaplan, director of development and policy for the group, said, “Health care workers have denied many injecting drug users access to an antiviral drug and the use of methadone.”

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai recently announced that the country’s harm reduction programs have helped to curb the spread of HIV among IDUs, adding that local substitution programs have reduced the number of HIV-positive IDUs and that the country needs increased support from UNAIDS for such efforts. TTAG called for the government to provide prevention and treatment options, such as substitution therapy and needle-exchange programs. The Nation reports that methadone treatment is offered at hospitals across the country as part of the national health care scheme, but many health care workers refuse to administer treatment. In addition, government treatment is offered for 45 days. Kaplan said that the government should revise its policy regarding treatment access for IDUs, as a majority of IDUs are incarcerated and living with HIV or hepatitis-C without treatment access. She called on the government to “implement the international standards of medical treatment for [IDUs], without discrimination and human rights violations” (The Nation, 5/27).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.