The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention.  Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs.  Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half.

Join key experts to discuss these issues:

• Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Tom Walsh, Acting Deputy Coordinator, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator
• Robert Hecht, Principal and Managing Director, Results for Development, and Co-Convener, Costs and Financing Project, AIDS 2031
• Daniel Wikler, Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics Harvard University
• Matthew Kavanagh, Director of U.S. Advocacy at Health GAP
• Alan E. Greenberg, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services
• Shannon L. Hader, Director, District of Columbia HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration

WHEN:          Tuesday, November 10, 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m

WHERE:        Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C.;  Metro: Union Station (Red Line)

RSVP:            RSVP online. For questions, contact Hannah Fishman at 301-652-1558 or hfishman@burnesscommunications.com

The briefing is sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Health Affairs will offer live updates from the event on Twitter at #HAHIV.  

 Among the topics to be addressed:

• The short- and long-term challenges of paying for global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment
• Critical steps that could cut costs and improve the efficiency of HIV/AIDS treatment
• What must be done now to meet the long and short-term financing challenges?
• What needs to be done to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C.?

Background
Twenty eight years after AIDS was first identified, the pandemic continues to present the world with profound challenges. Despite the tens of billions of dollars devoted to fighting HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world, rising HIV infections coupled with a global economic crisis have created a perfect storm of inadequate funding to fight HIV for the short as well as the long term. Some 4 million people around the world are on antiretroviral drugs, but a total of at least 11 million are estimated to require treatment. And the rapid growth in treatment has failed to keep pace with the rate of new infections. Today, 33 million people are infected with HIV and the number needing treatment is predicted to grow in the years ahead. Here at home, three percent of Washington, DC-area residents are infected with HIV, on par with some sub-Saharan African countries.

Tentative Agenda 

8:30 a.m.       Welcome and Opening Remarks
Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs

8:35 a.m.        Overview and Long-Term Financing Challenges

Robert Hecht, Principal and Managing Director, Results for Development Institute

9:20 a.m.        Improving the Response: Advancing the Science of Prevention and Treatment

Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

10:00 a.m.       Ethical Issues in the Global Response to HIV/AIDS

Daniel Wikler, Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics Harvard University

Matthew Kavanagh, Director of U.S. Advocacy at Health GAP

10:45 a.m.       Break

11:00 a.m.       Fighting HIV/AIDS In Washington, D.C.

Alan E. Greenberg, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services

Shannon L. Hader, Director, District of Columbia HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD, and TB Administration

11:45 a.m.       Remarks

Tom Walsh, Acting Deputy Coordinator, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator

12:30 p.m.       Adjourn

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