Dear readers,
The current political landscape presents extraordinary challenges to the safeguarding of public health. The recent halting of U.S. funding towards essential HIV programmes, such as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the rise in policies that target and discriminate against key populations threatens to reverse decades of lifesaving work.
Against this backdrop, the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) recently published two field notes and a viewpoint measuring and discussing the impact of the PEPFAR stop-work order.
- Early impacts of the PEPFAR stop-work order: a rapid assessment, authored by Elise Lankiewicz, Alana Sharp, Patrick Drake, Jennifer Sherwood, Brian Macharia, Michael Ighodaro, Brian Honermann and Asia Russell
- Rapid development of an online tracker to communicate the human impact of abruptly halting PEPFAR support, authored by Brooke E. Nichols, Elvin H. Geng, Eric Moakley, Andrew N. Phillips, Jeffrey W. Imai-Eaton, John Stover, Edinah Mudimu and Anna Grimsrud
- By executive order: The likely deadly consequences associated with a 90-day pause in PEPFAR funding, authored by Khai Hoan Tram, Jirair Ratevosian and Chris Beyrer
Additionally, JIAS published a Statement in response to recent U.S. executive orders as well as an accompanying editorial, “Knowledge as resistance: advancing global health in challenging times”. Authored by JIAS Executive Editor Marlène Bras on behalf of the Editors of the journal, the editorial reaffirms JIAS’s commitment to supporting the dissemination of evidence-based and person-centred research, irrespective of external political or ideological influences. We encourage you to read and share these articles among your networks.
“In the face of uncertainty and adversity, our collective commitment to rigorous science, inclusivity and truth must remain unwavering.”
The Journal of the International AIDS Society is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, which publishes HIV-related research from various disciplines and particularly encourages submissions in implementation sciences.
