US PEPFAR "at risk" from unfocused goals

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a USA-based global health care charity providing care to HIV/AIDS patients, has warned that US President George W Bush's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is at risk of losing its focus, following proposals to amend the program in the US Congress as it faces renewal. The PEPFAR, launched in 2003, has largely concentrated on the delivery of antiretroviral drugs to 15 countries with the goal of supplying these products to two million people and preventing the infection of seven million more. A controversial element of the scheme is the insistence that 30% of the funds are used to finance "abstinence-promoting" organizations (Marketletters passim).