Health Issues in Ethiopia

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington released in June 2012 a report titled Advancing Health in Ethiopia. The authors, J. Stephen Morrison and Suzanne Brundage, know the issues well.

They point out that between 2003 and 2011, the United States provided more than $1.4 billion through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In the eight and a half years of the Global Fund's operations in Ethiopia, over $1.1 billion has been expended toward programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These commitments have had significant results. In 2005, fewer than 1,000 Ethiopians were receiving anti-retroviral treatment. By 2011, more than 237,000 individuals had access to these life-saving drugs. Even more important, Ethiopia's HIV-prevalence rate has dropped to a modest 1.5 percent, with the problem concentrated in urban and peri-urban centers. The authors also suggest four steps to create a more strategic U.S. approach to health in Ethiopia.

Click here to read the entire report.