PROBLEM In low- and middle-income countries, breast and cervical cancer have a poor prognosis, partly owing to barriers to treatment. To redress this situation, health systems must be strengthened. APPROACH Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon (PRRR) is an innovative partnership designed to leverage public and private investments in global health and to build on the successful United States President's Eme...

In 2011, Ambassador Eric Goosby of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIVand AIDS, announced a Global Plan for eliminating new HIV infections in children and keeping their mothers alive [1]. The elimination of maternal-to-child transmission (EMTCT) or Global Plan calls for three topline goals – d...

Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) has been shown to be an effective prevention strategy against HIV infection in males [1-3]. Since 2007, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has supported VMMC programs in 14 priority countries in Africa. Today several of these countries are preparing to transition their VMMC programs from a scale-up and expansion phase to a maintena...

Given compelling evidence associating voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) with men's reduced HIV acquisition through heterosexual intercourse, South Africa in 2010 began scaling up VMMC. To project the resources needed to complete 4.3 million circumcisions between 2010 and 2016, we (1) estimated the unit cost to provide VMMC; (2) assessed cost drivers and cost variances across eight prov...

BACKGROUND Health information systems are central to strong health systems. They assist with patient and program management, quality improvement, disease surveillance, and strategic use of information. Many donors have worked to improve health information systems, particularly by supporting the introduction of electronic health information systems (EHIS), which are considered more responsive an...

After the launch of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2003, it became evident that inadequate laboratory systems and services would severely limit the scale-up of human immunodeficiency virus infection prevention, care, and treatment programs. Thus, the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Becton, Dickinson and Company deve...

Pediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection remains an important public health issue in resource-limited settings. In 2015, 1.4 million children aged <15 years were estimated to be living with HIV (including 170,000 infants born in 2015), with the vast majority living in sub-Saharan Africa (1). In 2014, 150,000 children died from HIV-related causes worldwide (2). Access to timely HIV...

OBJECTIVE The objective of the WHO/US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief consultation was to discuss innovative strategies, offer guidance, and develop a comprehensive policy framework for implementing quality-assured HIV-related point-of-care testing (POCT). METHODS The consultation was attended by representatives from international agencies (WHO, UNICEF, UNITAID, Clinton Health Acce...

BACKGROUND World Health Organization's essential drugs list can control the highly prevalent HIV-related pain and symptoms. Availability of essential medicines directly influences clinicians' ability to effectively manage distressing manifestations of HIV. AIM To determine the availability of pain and symptom controlling drugs in East Africa within President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief-f...

In 2007, South Africa’s new Children’s Act came into effect [1,2], expanding the scope of several existing children’s rights and explicitly granting new ones. The Act gives to children 12 years and older a host of rights relating to reproductive health, including access to contraceptives and to information on sexuality and reproduction, and the right of consent to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment...