“Speaking out against a potential $16 million cut in the Army’s base research and development budget  for HIV, leaders of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) sent a letter (.pdf) Thursday to the Secretary of the U.S. Army, John McHugh, making the case for sustaining the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP),” according to the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog. In the letter, IDSA President James Hughes and HIVMA Board Chair Kathleen Squires “urged the secretary … to continue the modest investment in the MHRP, which also sustains more than 100,000 HIV-infected people in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, Mozambique and Thailand on lifesaving antiretroviral therapy through the [PEPFAR] program,” the blog writes (10/13).