GlobalAIDSLeadershipNow.com Public Health Leaders to Obama: AIDS Money Saves Lives, We Need Your Leadership

Mr. President, we need your leadership on global AIDS in the 2012 budget

Dear President Obama:

This is a pivotal moment in the global AIDS epidemic. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria are tremendously successful. There are clear signs of progress, with lower mortality and falling HIV infection rates across sub-Saharan Africa.
And recent scientific advances give us new tools to change the course of the epidemic.

Your fiscal year 2012 budget request is particularly crucial this year. As you prepare your budget request please consider:

AIDS is the leading killer of women of reproductive age and the response to AIDS remains crucial to the health of women globally;
PEPFAR builds health systems by investing in laboratories, personnel and other areas that are a foundation for broader health services and the Global Health Initiative;
Only $0.0025 from each tax dollar goes to global health, yet the return is incalculable, saving millions of lives and advancing America’s reputation abroad;
PEPFAR has a unique history of strong bipartisan support—bringing Democrats and Republicans together; and
The need remains great. Ten million people in urgent need of lifesaving care do not have access. Too many children are still becoming infected and dying before they are offered treatment that can save their lives.

Please request a substantial increase in global AIDS and health funding in your budget. In doing so you will send the unequivocal message that America will not retreat
from our leadership on global AIDS; we will not abandon the millions of poor men, women and children in Africa and elsewhere who are living with or at risk for HIV
infection. Rather, we will continue to make progress in saving lives and ensuring that the scientific breakthroughs made possible by American ingenuity and U.S.
taxpayers’ hard earned dollars benefit those who need them the most in the U.S. and around the world.

David Bangsberg, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health
Mercedes C. Becerra, ScD, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Richard E. Chaisson, MD, Director, Center for Tuberculosis Research, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Paul D. Cleary, PhD, Dean, Yale Univ. School of Public Health
Deborah Cotton, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Boston Univ. School of Medicine
Jim Curran, MD, MPH, Dean, Emory Univ. Rollins School of Public Health
Susan Cu-Uvin, MD, Director, Global Health Initiative, Brown Univ.
Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, Director, Global Health Initiative, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia Univ.
Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Julio Frenk, MD, MPH, MA, PhD, Dean, School of Public Health, Harvard University
Gerald Friedland, MD, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health, Yale Univ. School of Medicine
Diane Havlir, MD, Professor of Medicine, Univ. of California San Francisco
Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, Director, Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Harvard Medical School

Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD, President, Dartmouth College
Michael Klag, MD, MPH, Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Daniel R. Kuritzkes, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Director of AIDS Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Kenneth H. Mayer, MD, Professor of Medicine and Community Health, Brown Univ.
Veronica Miller, PhD, Director, Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
Neal Nathanson, MD, Associate Dean, Global Health Programs, Univ. of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Josh Ruxin, PhD, MPH, Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health, Columbia Univ.; Founder and Director, Rwanda Works
John A. Schneider, MD, MPH, Director, Global Health Programs, Univ. of Chicago
Donna Shalala, PhD, President, Univ. of Miami
Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, Amos Christie Chair of Global Health, Vanderbilt Univ. School of Medicine
Judith Wasserheit, MD, MPH, Vice Chair, Dept. of Global Health, Univ. of Washington
Terrie Fox Wetle, PhD, Associate Dean of Medicine for Public Health, Alpert Medical School, Brown Univ.

PDF Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.
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Background on the issue: