Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken has commemorates with Potus Biden and VP Harris on the 35th World AIDS Day. In his speech, he calls for “Remembrance and Commitment” to further strengthen global collaborative efforts to eradicate the pandemic.
As we remember the more than 40 million lives that have been cut short by HIV/AIDS, we must redouble our efforts and commit to achieving the goal of ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 worldwide.
He further gave bravo to the fruitful initiative of the United States of America’s government to end the global health challenge via PEPFAR, which marks its 20th anniversary of the U.S. Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR was cited by Blinken to have saved more than 25 million lives and enabled more than 5.5 million babies to be born HIV-free.
While celebrating the outcomes of PEPFAR, he made a strong case not to lose sight of the fragility of our collective efforts to end this pandemic. PEPFAR’s successes to-date cannot be taken for granted. Losing momentum on the gains we have made would have devastating consequences around the world, jeopardizing access to essential HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services for millions of children and adults and compromising our efforts to end the pandemic. That is why we are working with Congress to pass a five-year, clean reauthorization bill as Congress has done three times before.
PEPFAR is critical, not only in our fight against HIV/AIDS, but also to help prepare the world for the future pandemics we will inevitably face. As part of the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, PEPFAR is investing in strong health systems, supporting hundreds of thousands of health workers to respond to HIV/AIDS, and enhancing our partners’ capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to other health threats, including COVID-19, Ebola, cholera, H1N1 influenza, mpox, and tuberculosis.
Ambassador Linda Greenfield on her part expresses condolences to families and communities who have been shattered by the permanent scars of the pandemic, while renewing hope to buttress Blinken’s call of the United States commitment to see an end to HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
In her word; Greenfield posited the United States commitment to join global efforts to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Calling for continued work together with urgency to end the disease, to advance a healthier, safer, and more secure world for all.
