Blog Contributor:
Todd Summers
Todd leads ONE’s advocacy on global health, especially in support of major funding programs such as the Global Fund and GAVI. Previously he was senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served as the foundation's representative on the Global Fund’s board of directors. He remains vice chair of the Fund’s policy and strategy committee. Todd has more than 25 years of experience in health policy, working in government and non-governmental organizations
Dec 1st, 2010 12:12 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
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This is the second in today’s five-part series on innovative prevention efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS for World AIDS Day. Be sure to follow along throughout the day.
Photos of the first panel at the USAID Microbicide Stakeholders Meeting (Photo Credit: USAID/Bethany Egan).
There’s exciting news coming from researchers working on HIV prevention technologies about a gel that women can use that reduces significantly their risk of acquiring HIV from vaginal intercourse. Called a microbicide, it’s particularly exciting because it offers women more control over HIV prevention –- and this is important because AIDS impacts girls and women disproportionately (I blogged about this earlier, but it’s so exciting, I’m doing it again!)
Yesterday, I had a chance to attend a workshop at the US Agency for International Development hosted by its administrator Dr. Raj Shah (disclosure: I worked with Raj at the Gates Foundation and he’s a friend). USAID helped finance the microbicide study in South Africa that generated these results, and yesterday’s workshop was to come up with an action plan to get it approved by regulatory agencies and into the hands of women that need it.
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Dec 1st, 2010 9:35 AM UTC
By Todd Summers
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To commemorate World AIDS Day, Todd Summers kicks off a 5-part series looking at innovative prevention efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Be sure to follow along throughout the day:
This World AIDS Day, we have much to celebrate—millions more on antiretroviral treatment, decreasing stigma, and increasing global partnership to fight this disease. The over 5 million people now getting AIDS drugs in the developing world are Living Proof that investments can translate into lives saved. Watch this video to get a personal version of hope.
A special nod to former President George W. Bush, who provided great leadership on AIDS during his tenure – he makes a forceful argument for continuing that work in an op ed published today. And a salute to our friends at (RED), who’ve helped raise awareness around the world – and a lot of money for the Global Fund. US support for AIDS, through both the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund, has been a great story of success.
Yet amidst all of this progress, there were 2.9 million new HIV infections in 2009, drastically outpacing the 1.2 million newly placed on treatment. If we hope to turn the tide of the AIDS epidemic, we need to do more to prevent the spread of HIV – especially by committing to No Child Born with HIV.
We encourage you to continue the fight, to find as many ways as you can to be a part of the end of AIDS. And read more about World AIDS Day 2010 at our Featured Series here.
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Nov 29th, 2010 4:31 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
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To commemorate World AIDS Day, we’re launching a series of blog posts to educate, inspire and update you about the fight against HIV/AIDS. Keep an eye out for posts like this one on the ONE Blog throughout the week
Fortunata, who is HIV-positive, and her HIV-negative daughter, Florida
Every year on December 1, the world marks another anniversary of the global HIV epidemic. This year, as we take time on the ONE Blog to mark the week of World AIDS Day, we see opportunities that make us very optimistic about bringing this epidemic to an end, and an equally long list of challenges to overcome.
Let’s start with the good news: AIDS deaths are declining, new infections are decreasing in some countries and more than 5 million people are alive thanks to life-saving antiretroviral treatment (Check out UNAIDS’ new report for details).
Donors have also responded with historic levels of support, reaching about $8 billion in 2009, and another $8 billion from domestic sources, including governments, businesses and individuals. And there’s more help on the way, with recent good news on a number of new HIV prevention technologies (which we’ll be blogging about tomorrow).
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Nov 12th, 2010 1:50 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
More than 1.5 million kids under the age of 5 die every year from pneumonia.
Who knew?
In wealthy countries, we tend to think of pneumonia as a disease of the elderly, but pneumonia actually kills more young children than HIV, measles and malaria combined. Another child dies from pneumonia every 20 seconds.
Today is a day that’s meant to bring attention to pneumonia, the leading killer of young children. You probably didn’t wake up thinking about World Pneumonia Day, but now that you know, it’s a great opportunity to spend a few minutes to learn how you can make a difference.
Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs that makes it impossible to take in enough air to survive, and is particularly dangerous for children that are otherwise weakened by malnutrition and limited access to proper health care. It can be caused by a range of factors, some environmental (like air pollution) and others by infections. These factors can be easily addressed, so fighting pneumonia is a matter of commitment and funding. That’s where you can help.
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Oct 14th, 2010 2:00 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
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![image001[1]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/5080895955_814129d620.jpg)
Last week in New York City, donors were busy discussing their support for several global health funding initiatives. We’ve blogged already about the Global Fund replenishment meeting, but there was a separate meeting the day after for donors interested in supporting the GAVI Alliance, a mechanism that helps raise funding for introducing new and underused vaccines for children.
We’ve been looking closely at how ONE can help advocate for vaccines for children because protecting children for a lifetime from debilitating and deadly diseases is such a smart investment. Since GAVI started in 2000, it’s been able to support country efforts to increase coverage of vaccines to protect against preventable diseases like hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and it’s averted the deaths of 5.4 million children (see the chart). And it works smartly, too, using its buying power to drive down the price of vaccines while increasing the number of suppliers available for the developing world.
GAVI has received solid support from donors so far, but its financial needs are increasing rapidly as it seeks to get out new vaccines, including those for rotavirus (which causes diarrhea) and for pneumococcal infections (a leading cause of pneumonia).
![image003[1]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/5081490148_cf0de3c999_m.jpg)
The bottom line: GAVI needs a total of $7 billion from this year through 2015 to ensure it can get the vaccines to the children who need them, and with that money can avert the deaths of 4.2 million children. They’ve got about $2.7 billion already committed, so they estimate that they need another $4.3 billion to reach this target.
There’s a lot of work for GAVI and its partners to do, with as many as 24 million children still being missed by vaccines so we’ll be lending GAVI a hand as it seeks to engage donors and improve efficiency. Expect to hear more from us over the coming months as we’ll really need your help!
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Oct 13th, 2010 1:56 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
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After months of campaigning from ONE members around the world, and after a two-day pledging conference in New York, the dust has finally settled on the Global Fund’s third replenishment.
From left to right: Mr. Richard Manning, Replenishment Vice-Chair; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Prof. Kazatchkine, Global Fund Executive Director; Dr. Debrework Zewdie, Global Fund Deputy Executive Director at the Third Voluntary Replenishment Meeting, 5 October 2010. © The Global Fund / John Rae
By the end of the meeting, donors had come forward with pledges totaling $9.2 billion, and the Global Fund’s secretariat anticipated that another $2.5 billion would come in from donors unable to make commitments at the meeting, bringing the total for the replenishment to $11.7 billion over the next three years.
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Oct 5th, 2010 2:09 PM UTC
By Todd Summers
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I’m here in New York, participating in the Global Fund’s replenishment meeting, and it’s been a busy morning with donors from the north and south making pledges to the Global Fund over the next three years. I’ll send along a detailed analysis from ONE’s perspective at the end of the day, but I wanted you to hear some major news from us first: The U.S. has just announced that it will pledge $4 billion over the next three years.
Ambassador Eric Goosby, head of the U.S.’ AIDS programs, said on behalf of the Obama Administration:
“We strongly support the Global Fund’s collaborative, country-driven, performance-based approach to fighting the three diseases, and we are proud to be the Global Fund’s largest donor.”
As you know, we’ve been campaigning hard with your support over the last few months for $6 billion over three years, so this obviously falls short of what we had called for, and we are disappointed. We recognize that this is still a solid increase given the current economic environment, and we are glad to see the U.S. make its first-ever three-year pledge, but this funding level does not put us on track to meet two major health goals by 2015: the virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission and the end of malaria deaths.
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