President Obama Signs Reauthorization of PEPFAR

Ten years ago, HIV/AIDS was devastating the health and wellbeing of millions of individuals in communities across Africa and in other resource-poor countries around the world. Through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), we have since made extraordinary progress in reducing new HIV infections and providing life-saving care and treatment to those who are living with HIV/AIDS around the world. An example of this progress was the announcement in June, that CDC, together with our sister PEPFAR implementing agencies, achieved a dramatic milestone: the prevention of HIV infection in one million babies globally over the past ten years.

Yesterday, President Obama reaffirmed the United States' commitment to an AIDS-free generation by signing into law the PEPFAR Stewardship and Oversight Act of 2013.

Along with our colleagues at the HHS Office of Global Affairs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), our work with PEPFAR over the next decade will be equally pivotal. CDC will continue to implement proven biomedical interventions that will dramatically decrease the impact of HIV/AIDS. The heart of what CDC brings to the fight is our ability to share our science and innovation to build capacity across the globe. We are closer today than ever before to reaching our goal of an AIDS-free generation. That is a reason to celebrate and, more importantly, to dedicate ourselves even more to scaling up what works to stop this pandemic.

CDC congratulates President Obama and Congress for reaffirming the U.S. commitment to PEPFAR and to achieving an AIDS-free generation.

Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES