Bold New PEPFAR Targets Focus Efforts on Ending AIDS in Adolescent Girls and Women

On Saturday, September 26, a day after the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by UN Member States in New York, PEPFAR announced investments of nearly half a billion dollars to support new HIV prevention targets that will dramatically expand access to HIV treatment and greatly reduce incidence among adolescent girls and young women. The targets will also strategically align $300 million in additional prevention investments in support of their DREAMS partnership and related efforts.

With ten focus countries – Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia, United Republic of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Uganda – PEPFAR ambitiously aims to reduce HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 by 40% by the end of 2017. Additionally, the targets will focus on expanding and ensuring accessing to lifesaving treatment for nearly 13 million children, pregnant women and adults by 2017. The focus countries accounted for nearly half of all new HIV infections among the target population in 2014, therefore PEPFAR increased investment is a testament to the continued commitment of the United States toward creating an AIDS-free generation by 2030 – as also outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

EGPAF welcomes these new targets and their specific focus on the health and well being of women and children – who are often the greatest victims of the AIDS epidemic. EGPAF also looks forward to continuing to collaborate closely with PEPFAR in order to effectively end AIDS in women and children and help meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

To read more about the specific targets set by PEPFAR visit www.pepfar.gov. For more updates on this and on other news coming out of the United Nations General Assembly, follow EGPAF on Twitter.