Posted on February 29th, 2008 by joshbusby
It looks like a bipartisan compromise on PEPFAR reauthorization has been reached which will do several things: (1) provide even more money than President Bush asked for (which already represented a doubling over the previous five year program) (2) ease the rules and restrictions that directed a portion of prevention money to abstinence, and (3) […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on January 19th, 2008 by joshbusby
Amy Patterson has a post on a new CSIS online Africa Policy forum. Here is my comment on her piece. Amy Patterson makes a number of important points. I generally agree that greater civil society mobilization would likely foster country ownership of HIV/AIDS programs, but what would that look like? How would that alter what […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on January 13th, 2008 by joshbusby
A January 2008 article in a new journal Future HIV Therapy makes the most persuasive case for male circumcision being rolled out on a much, much wider scale in sub-Saharan Africa. We have blogged about the importance of male circumcision before (see here, here, and here). This new piece is by Jeffrey D Klausner, Richard […]
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Filed under: Epidemiology, Politics and Policy
Posted on December 12th, 2007 by joshbusby
This from the Kaiser Family Foundation reports: HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs Will Not Keep Pace Unless Number of New Cases Decreases, Experts Say at PEPFAR Reauthorization Hearing [Dec 12, 2007] HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Africa will not be able to keep pace unless the number of new cases significantly decreases, experts said Tuesday at a Senate […]
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Posted on November 19th, 2007 by joshbusby
I am sure this will become a big item of discussion, but Craig Timberg, who has written critical news articles about AIDS estimates before has written another article in the Washington Post detailing forthcoming new estimates, using improved sampling methodologies. The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new […]
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Filed under: Epidemiology, Politics and Policy
Posted on November 19th, 2007 by joshbusby
A postscript on the disbursement “gap” issue which may be something of a non-problem. See here and here for earlier posts. In talking with colleagues more knowledgeable about budgeting and the commitment process by the various donors, there is a sense that the difference between commitment and disbursement is both (1) normal and (2) idiosyncratic […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on November 19th, 2007 by joshbusby
In thinking about President Bush’s request to extend PEPFAR’s life for another 5 years and an additional $30 billion, I’ve come across some data that suggests the U.S. is having disbursement problems. While I don’t think this will pose a problem for PEPFAR reauthorization in the short run, I wonder if these problems are unique […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on November 1st, 2007 by joshbusby
With PEPFAR up for reauthorization and a big expansion on Capitol Hill (and by all rights, likely to pass), there still may be medium-term trouble on the horizon within the Republican Party. The hangover of Iraq is giving isolationists like Ron Paul more traction, and there is, according to Bush’s former speechwriter Mike Gerson, growing […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on September 27th, 2007 by joshbusby
The Economist has a great story on the replenishment process for the Global Fund that is happening in Berlin. I am a big supporter of treatment, but here is the nub of the issue, which gets back to the notion of an open-ended lifetime entitlement that Western donors are providing for those infected with HIV. […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy
Posted on September 18th, 2007 by joshbusby
I’ve blogged a bit about the book before (see here), but here is my review of Amy Patterson’s book on AIDS in Africa that just appeared in Political Science Quarterly (here is a link to the PDF). The Politics of AIDS in Africa by Amy S. Patterson. Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2006. 226 pp. […]
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Filed under: Politics and Policy