How renewing a Bush era program for Africa will help us fend off Russia and China, boost national security

PEPFAR has helped save 25 million lives, and ensured an additional 5.5 million babies are born without HIV. PEPFAR recipient countries also boast a 20% lower mortality rate.

David N. Bernstein, MD, PhD, MBA, MEI is a resident physician at the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Boston Children’s Hospital and a Senior Researcher in health care transformation at Harvard Business School. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter): @DNBernsteinMD.

PEPFAR, a bipartisan initiative that began in 2003 under the George W. Bush administration, is one of America’s greatest global health achievements and a key diplomacy program that not only is a moral imperative but enhances our national interests and makes us a stronger and safer nation. 

As World AIDS Day approaches on Dec. 1, we must ensure the program remains intact.