Johns Hopkins Professor Leads Evaluation of the U.S. Global Response to HIV/AIDS

Robert Black, MD, chair and Edgar Berman Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will present the Institute of Medicine’s “Evaluation of PEPFAR” at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on February 20 at 9 a.m.

In 2003, the federal government created the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to help save the lives of those suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. According to a recent study, PEPFAR has already supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for over 5 million people worldwide. “But even with PEPFAR’s contribution to the substantial scale-up of HIV services in countries with restricted resources and infrastructure, the most profound challenge is simply the unmet need,” says Black.

In 2008, Congress asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to evaluate the program from its inception. Black chaired the Committee for the Outcome and Impact Evaluation of Global HIV/AIDS, which was responsible for this evaluation and authored the report. He will present the committee’s findings and recommendations at the Academy’s main auditorium.

The event is open to the public, but registration is required. The proceedings will be streamed live on the IOM website at http://www.iom.edu/pepfarwebcast.

Black has also written a commentary on the PEPFAR evaluation for The Lancet. The article entitled, “The future of the U.S. response to global HIV/AIDS” will be available on the journal’s website on February 20.

For complete details about the IOM event: http://iom.edu/Activities/Global/PEPFAR2/2013-FEB-20.aspx.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health media contact: Tim Parsons at 410-955-7619 or tmparson@jhsph.edu.