PHR CAMPAIGNS

PHR Action Center

Help Expand PEPFAR and End HIV Travel Ban

A greatly improved and expanded version of PEPFAR has been introduced in Congress, The Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. This bill will be voted on this week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and we need your immediate help to secure the support of your Senator and pass the best bill possible.

The bill authorizes $50 billion dollars in funding and largely focuses on evidence- and human rights-based treatment, prevention and care programs. Unfortunately, the bill does not go far enough to address the critical shortage of health care professionals that are needed in the fight against AIDS and other diseases.

Please ask your Senator to support a bill that includes provisions to train and retain 140,000 new health care professionals and supports full implementation of national health workforce strategies.
The Senate bill includes language that would lift the travel ban against people with HIV—a human rights violation that has stood since the early 1990s.

Please tell your Senator that you support lifting this ban and want him or her to support the retention of this important language during the amendment process.

Please personalize the beginning of your message by telling your own experience with this issue or why it is important to you.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support Efforts to Train and Retain New Health Care Professionals, End HIV Travel Ban

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Continued advances in the US fight against global AIDS cannot be won without strong investments in health systems and health workers. The authorization of the Global HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act is a crucial opportunity to scale up US efforts to fight AIDS and other diseases. Please support legislation that includes provisions for the training and retention of at least 140,000 new health care professionals.

From the World Health Organization (WHO) to the World Bank, from OGAC to the Institute of Medicine, there is now global recognition that without addressing the gaping shortage of health workers in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, the sustained scale-up of HIV services towards universal access that PEPFAR seeks to achieve is unattainable. WHO estimates that sub-Saharan Africa alone needs 1.5 million more health workers to meet the population's basic health needs, including more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives. Achieving the global commitment to universal access to HIV/AIDS services will require, globally, the equivalent of more than 427,000 new health workers who provide HIV/AIDS services full-time, according to UNAIDS.

PEPFAR will only succeed if its next phase does far more to train and retain health workers. Therefore, I urge that you make every possible effort to ensure that the legislation includes direct US support for training and retaining at least 140,000 new health professionals by 2013. PEPFAR has already expressed strong interest in supporting community health workers. Indeed, community health workers, who should be fairly compensated, are crucial to the AIDS response and need further support. Yet to move the response to the health worker crisis to the next level, this target should focus on professionals such as nurses, doctors, and laboratory technicians. This would be a significant start towards overcoming the massive health worker shortages and ensuring that countries have the health workers they require for HIV/AIDS programs - without drawing health workers away from other critical health programs. I also urge you to ensure that the legislation supports countries in developing and fully implementing national health workforce strategies designed to meet health needs, goals, and commitments. This will ensure that the United States supports a comprehensive response to the health worker crisis, such the need to equitably deploy and better manage health workers.

In addition, we ask you to support current language in the Senate bill that would lift the travel ban that bars people with HIV from visiting the United States.

The ban is a continuation of misunderstood, and offensive, practices that violate human rights and contribute to the stigma that fuels this pandemic. There are no public health grounds for the ban.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 12, 2008

Background Information

PHR is calling for programs that will train, retain, and support hundreds of thousands of new health workers needed to deliver HIV, TB, and malaria services in the hardest hit countries.

One of the greatest obstacles to continued progress in the fight against AIDS is the dire shortage of health workers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization has identified 57 countries, including 36 in Africa, where the current level of health workers makes it "very unlikely" that they will achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reversing the spread of AIDS, malaria and other major diseases and significantly reducing child and maternal mortality.

In Africa, people are dying unnecessarily because there are simply not enough health care workers. Health workers--nurses, doctors, pharmacists, community health workers, laboratory technicians, physician assistants, nurse assistants, mental health workers, managers, and many more—are at the core of health systems everywhere. They diagnose and treat diseases, educate and care for patients and develop and implement policies and strategies to combat disease. But in sub-Saharan Africa, a mere 3% of the world's health workers struggle against all odds to treat 14% of the world's population and combat 24% of the global disease burden.

The World Health Organization estimates that sub-Saharan Africa is suffering a shortage of more than 800,000 doctors, nurses and midwives and an overall shortfall of nearly 1.5 million health workers. A recent estimate of the funds needed to double the health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa placed the cost at an additional $2 billion in the first year, and more in ensuing years—a major investment the US must be part of to ensure all of our global health initiatives save lives and build health systems that last.

PHR is calling for a lifting of the HIV travel ban.

The travel ban is a long-standing human rights violation that has been an embarrassment to the US since it was instituted in the early 1990s. There are no valid public health grounds for the ban, and hundreds of medical and public health organizations have opposed it since its inception.

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