Summary

At the 72nd United National General Assembly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released the new U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020), which reaffirms U.S. support for HIV/AIDS efforts in more than 50 countries, ensuring access to services by all populations, including the most vulnerable and at-risk groups.

The Strategy also outlines plans to accelerate implementation in a subset of 13 high-burden countries that have the potential to achieve HIV/AIDS epidemic control by 2020, working in collaboration with host governments, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, and other partners.

The latest PEPFAR data show that, largely through the U.S. government’s support, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is coming under control in 5 of these 13 countries: Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These data also indicate that the previously expanding HIV epidemic in Uganda has now stabilized.