November 17, 2008

HIV Co-Discoverer Calls for Domestic PEPFAR Plan

In an opinion piece published in the November 16 edition of The Washington Post, Robert C. Gallo, MD—director of the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore and co-discoverer of the HIV retrovirus—praised George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for providing treatment to more than 1.7 million HIV-positive people around the world, but he said that a similar program was needed to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States.

“A PEPFAR plan for America’s inner cities would help to neutralize and diminish the number of people contracting HIV and the number dying of AIDS,” he writes. “It could provide access to prescribed care and medical therapies so patients with HIV can live a normal lifespan (many don’t even realize this is possible). An effort to help these Americans, among our country’s poorest, could also strengthen U.S. international relations, sending a message to the world that America recognizes that is not different from other countries and that we, too, have an HIV/AIDS pandemic.”

Dr. Gallo adds that education is tantamount in preventing and managing HIV infection. “As long as socioeconomic conditions prevail, those living in HIV/AIDS ‘hot spots’ without education about the disease and facing other life challenges—such as mental illness, drug abuse, homelessness and lack of health insurance—will be at risk even if we do develop an AIDS vaccine.”

Regarding a potential AIDS vaccine, Gallo said he is optimistic; however, he notes that a program must first be in place to “ensure that our nation is positioned to readily distribute the medicine, helping to put an end to this terrible disease.”

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Previous Comments:

twolaneflash, , 2008-11-23 14:05:11
Robert Gallo? The intellectual fraud, honor thief, research felon, and the primary cause of HIV early spread in America due to his arrogance, hubris, and rank dishonesty? The guy who said 5 years ago that protease inhibitors would not be used to treat HIV in 3 years? That Robert Gallo? Yeah, I'm really interested in what he's saying.

Raymond, EL PASO, 2008-11-18 19:10:18
I think it is time to start helping out our own individuals living with HIV,AIDS here in the United States, I also am living with this virus,disease for 13 years and have seen the funding go down instead of up but yet we want to help other Countries around the world but we start cutting funds to our own people, what's wrong with this picture, we need to take care of our own first and then others, restore the funding and start helping us again, we are also going through this in our lives LIVE ON

Daniel, Montreal, 2008-11-18 19:09:27
It's been established, and confirmed with the 2008 Nobel Prize, that Dr Gallo is not a co-discoverer of HIV. Dr Luc Montagnier discovered the virus.

Greg747, Patchogue, NY, 2008-11-18 12:43:13
Hooray Dr Gallo, and to tired in atlanta, preach on. I lead an HIV/AIDS non-profit on Long Island and have seen first hand that the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 has been a failure. We must all pull together and restore the care to the CARE Act. Stop subsidizing homophobic dictators in Africa and help us here on Long Island and across the United States. AIDS has been sent to the back of the bus for too long and the result is higher incidence. Not good.

Tim, Albany, 2008-11-18 11:20:02
While no one disputes the need for international programs, it is well past the time to implement a plan for the US, too often we seem to be more concerned with helping abroad when it is obvious that we have real trouble brewing in our own backyards. It is a horrible truth that people in other nations enjoy affordable HIV medications, while we in the US suffer with medication prices 200 times that offered in other countries. I hope this movement grows because we need this here and now.

tired, atlanta, 2008-11-18 08:46:14
im tired of worryin bout the africa ect i want people to help hiv/aids more in usa take care of the ones with no health care here quit sendin our money to corrupt leaders so they can pocket it!