PBS' 'NewsHour With Jim Lehrer' Reports On Impact Of PEPFAR In African Countries

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 08 Nov 2007 - 10:00 PDT

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"NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on Tuesday reported on programs in Rwanda and Tanzania that are being funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The segment is the first of three reports examining the impact of PEPFAR, which was proposed by Bush in 2003 to fight global HIV/AIDS.

Mark Dybul, U.S. Global AIDS coordinator, said initial concerns about funding levels and whether delivering antiretroviral drugs would be possible in developing countries have been addressed. "When President Bush started this, when he announced this, 50,000 people -- 50,000 people -- in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral therapy," adding, "Through last September, we supported treatment for 1.1 million people."

The "NewsHour" segment also examined efforts to distribute antiretrovirals, reduce mother-to-child transmission and track adherence to antiretroviral treatment regimens in Rwanda (Dentzer, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," PBS, 11/6).

Audio and a transcript of the segment are available online. Video will be available Wednesday afternoon. A transcript of an extended interview with Dybul also is available online (Dentzer, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" Web site, 11/6).

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