On Thursday, 629 health professionals from across the United States sent a letter [.pdf] to Congressional leaders that outlines the success of PEPFAR and “warns that failure to fund PEPFAR adequately now will reverse the gains” achieved under the 10-year-old program, the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog reports. The blog notes, “The letter is addressed to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski [D-Md.], Ranking Member Richard Shelby [R-Ala.], Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations Chair Patrick Leahy [D-Vt.] and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.], House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers [R-Ky.], Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations Chair Kay Granger [R-Texas], and Appropriations Committee and State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee Ranking Member Nita Lowey [D-N.Y.],” the blog notes (Barton, 6/6). The letter states, “[W]e fear that the global AIDS response embodied in PEPFAR is threatened by a retreat in spending just as science has confirmed a set of potent interventions that, if effectively and rapidly deployed, could stop the AIDS epidemic in its tracks. … We implore you to continue the U.S. leadership that has made an AIDS-free generation an achievable goal in our lifetimes” (6/6).