Sunday, July 15, 2012

PEPFAR on the Mind

The July 31st issue of Health Affairs devotes itself to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and explores the aid program from a number of interesting viewpoints. The highlights for me includes a piece by Harsha Thirumurthy and coauthors on the economic benefits of treating HIV and a wonderful piece of research by Karen Grepin examining the effects of PEPFAR aid on other domains on health care (she finds positive spillovers for certain maternal health services, but crowd-out for child vaccines). The article by John Donnelly discusses the origin of PEPFAR within the (W) Bush administration, which I am sure would make most send some positive vibes to this otherwise beleaguered president.

The articles on the future of PEPFAR (how the funding streams can be better targeted, how much funding is needed and for how much longer) are quite interesting, as well. Certainly, if you have a particular interest in PEPFAR, the whole issue is worth reading.

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