PEPFAR at 20

First proposed by President Bush in January, 2003, and approved by Congress in late May, 2003, PEPFAR has since received more than $100 billion in US Government support. According to the US State Department, over a dozen countries with high disease burden have HIV under control thanks to PEPFAR. (Photo by Paul Botes / AFP) (Photo by PAUL BOTES/AFP via Getty Images) Paul Botes/Getty Images Jennifer Kates, Director of Global Health and HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington DC, says that data from two studies she coauthored show a “strong, significant association between PEPFAR and progress in many health indicators beyond HIV”. González-Pier describes PEPFAR now as a “maintenance programme” that should increasingly expect to share the stage with other US international health priorities including climate change, global health security, and pandemic control. “Because PEPFAR proved itself so successfully, cross-cutting lessons are now being drawn from it for a new set of US health diplomacy concerns”, says González-Pier.