| Transcript: | For World AIDS Day 2009, America.gov spoke with Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR. We took questions from America.gov's Facebook page. Oduna commented that more aggressive prevention campaigns should be emphasized.
On the importance of World AIDS Day:
Well, it's important to us to speak to the world about the investment Americans have made in responding to the AIDS epidemic on a global level. We see that day as an opportunity to reflect back our successes and to remind people that the burden of disease is about one-third addressed and we're still about two-thirds behind. So World AIDS Day is an opportunity to recommit to engaging in keeping AIDS and our response to it as a priority for the American taxpayer. The other, I think, critical role that World AIDS Day plays is an opportunity to reflect on the lives lost, the potentials unrealized, the extraordinary burden that that has had on families and communities and countries. |
