“The global response to AIDS over the past decade has been a great success — but there is still more work to do,” Ira Magaziner, vice chair and CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, writes in the Huffington Post’s “The Big Push” blog. “Since 2002, the global community has learned how to treat people effectively and efficiently,” he states, noting, “Over 10 million people are now receiving treatment. 10 million people who would have died are now alive.” However, new WHO treatment recommendations, “if implemented, will mean treating over twice as many people as we treat today, saving millions more lives and dramatically reducing the transmission of the disease,” he adds.

“At the Clinton Health Access Initiative, we know from over 11 years of experience in helping to build AIDS care and treatment programs around the world and negotiating agreements that lower the prices of drugs and tests, that it will be possible to meet these new goals over the next few years and to do so within existing annual spending levels,” Magaziner continues. “To be successful, global donors must fully replenish organizations like the Global Fund and PEPFAR. And those responsible for spending these funds must commit themselves to be as efficient as possible,” he writes. “It is within our power as a global community to prevent children from being born with HIV, it is within our reach to dramatically reduce the transmission of the virus among adults and it is both possible and our moral responsibility to try to save the lives of people suffering from AIDS,” he notes, concluding, “This can be done and it is the right thing to do” (12/3).