Prevention

The world cannot defeat this pandemic through treatment and care alone. The most recent UNAIDS report estimates that there were approximately 2.5 million new HIV infections in 2007, down from 2.7 million in 2006. This is a welcome trend, but at this level, new infections still far outpace the world's ability to add people to treatment.

The best approach to treatment, care and all the other challenges posed by HIV/AIDS is to prevent infection in the first place so that people do not need HIV treatment or care. Without effective prevention, the growing number of people in need of treatment and care -- and the growing number of OVCs -- will overwhelm the world's ability to respond and to sustain its response.

Recognizing this, PEPFAR supports the most comprehensive, evidence-based prevention program in the world, targeting interventions based on the epidemiology of HIV infection in each country. In the focus countries in FY2007, PEPFAR provided $601 million to support prevention activities that focus on sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission, the transmission of HIV through unsafe blood and medical injections, and male circumcision. This investment represented 21 percent of program funding in the focus countries; if counseling and testing counted as prevention, this share increases to 29 percent. PEPFAR also integrates new prevention methods and technologies as evidence is accumulated and normative guidance provided.

Five-Year Goal in the 15 Focus Countries:

• Support prevention of 7 million infections by 2010.

Progress Achieved through March 31, 2008:

• Prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission services for women during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies
• Antiretroviral prophylaxis for women in more than 1 million pregnancies
• Prevention of an estimated 194,000 infant infections