Tegucigalpa, M.D.C. – Today, the United States Government celebrates the 20th anniversary of the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
On January 28, 2003, the United States government launched PEPFAR, marking the largest commitment in history by a country to combat a single disease. When #PEPFAR started two decades ago, #HIV was a death sentence for millions of people around the world. Today, access to potentially life-saving treatments has made HIV a treatable condition.
Since PEPFAR’s inception, the U.S. government has invested more than:
- $100 billion in the global response to HIV/AIDS;
- 25 million lives saved;
- 5.5 million babies born without HIV;
- 20 million people received potentially life-saving antiretroviral treatment; and
- 340,000 trained healthcare workers around the world.
In December 2022, President Biden released a new five-year strategy, “Delivering on America’s Promise to End the HIV/AIDS Pandemic by 2030.” The strategy calls for maintaining the response to HIV/AIDS and other diseases, drastically reducing new infections, and promoting new partnerships and medical innovations, among other priorities. The United States, through PEPFAR, has worked with Honduran partners from the Ministry of Health, civil society, and multilateral agencies to create a future where every HIV infection is prevented, where every person has access to treatment, and every generation can live free of the stigma that too often surrounds AIDS, including vulnerable groups such as LGBTIG+ and ethnic groups.
In Honduras, PEPFAR has provided approximately $33.9 million in support since 2020 to combat AIDS in the country. In 2022 alone, PEPFAR effectively supported more than 30,000 Hondurans to fight the AIDS disease, tested and identified 1,190 new positives to link them to treatment, and provided vital treatment to more than 10,600 people. Additionally, it worked closely with the Ministry of Health to introduce pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV self-testing in Honduras.
January 28, 2023.
