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Some 741,000 deaths from any cause
were averted in 12 African countries receiving aid from the US President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a new study suggests. Previous research has
shown PEPFAR-associated declines in AIDS, but it was unclear whether there were
any changes in mortality for other illnesses, researchers said.
“There were concerns that there’s
been this shift in physicians and nurses [toward HIV clinics] to the detriment
of other public health concerns,” said lead author Dr. Eran Bendavid, an
infectious-diseases specialist from Stanford University. “We can’t find
evidence of unintended harms, or benefits. More or less we find that PEPFAR
seems to have been very effective at reducing deaths, probably mostly
HIV-specific deaths.”
The study found that in 2003, the
year PEPFAR was created, eight to nine deaths occurred per 1,000 adults in 27
African countries, which included nine PEPFAR recipients. By 2008, deaths had
declined to four of every 1,000 adults in PEPFAR countries and seven in 1,000
for non-PEPFAR countries. Data were based on surveys of adult women who were
asked about recent deaths in their families.
Critics said the more than $20
billion spent on PEPFAR during 2003-2008 could have been spent more wisely,
such as on preventing pneumonia and diarrhea.
“No one says that HIV [funding]
isn’t making a big difference; the question is whether other things would make
an even bigger difference,” said Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a medical ethicist from
the University of Pennsylvania-Philadelphia. “You cannot escape the ‘How do we
allocate the money?’ question when we don’t have enough.”
[PNU editor’s note: The study, “HIV
Development Assistance and Adult Mortality in Africa,” was published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (2012;307(19):2060-2067).]
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
