February 1, 2013

The Honorable John Kerry
Secretary of State
United States of America
Washington, DC

Dear Secretary Kerry:

We congratulate you on your confirmation as the Secretary of State.  You have an outstanding record in the United States Senate as an advocate for global health broadly and played a pivotal role in the creation of PEPFAR and the Global Fund specifically.  We are extremely grateful for your leadership in advancing these lifesaving programs in the Senate and look forward to working with you and your staff to ensure the continuation of the remarkable achievements of PEPFAR and the Global Fund, which are in large part due to US leadership and investment.

In this regard, we are gravely concerned about reports that the Obama Administration’s FY 2014 budget requests for PEPFAR and the Global Fund fail to provide adequate resources at critical points in the evolution of PEPFAR and the Global Fund and their respective responses to the three leading infectious disease killers- HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.  In advance of World AIDS Day 2012, Secretary Clinton launched a bold PEPFAR blueprint that charts a course for the United States, other donors and affected countries to turn the tide on the AIDS epidemic in the hardest hit countries in the world. This roadmap holds the promise of saving the lives of millions while strengthening fragile democracies and providing a profound humanitarian legacy for the Administration for its response to the deadliest pandemic of our time.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has new leadership and strategic focus.  Not only is adequate financing absolutely essential to the AIDS response and its goal of an AIDS-free generation, but Executive Director Dybul has a grand vision to double our efforts to address tuberculosis and malaria in the places in the world most devastated by these deadly infectious diseases.  His success and the success of the Global Fund and its significant reforms are  dependent upon robust investment in its new leader and investment plan—investment that will be leveraged to bring in additional resources from other donor nations and affected countries.

We urge you to use your new office as a steward of these programs to advocate for a fiscal year 2014 budget request that reflects the extraordinary opportunities presented by the PEPFAR Blueprint and the new leadership and strategic direction of the Global Fund.  A financial retreat from the United States government on the heels of promoting an ambitious PEPFAR plan to end AIDS and rejuvenating the Global Fund leadership and mission would be nothing short of devastating.

Sincerely yours,

Judy Aberg, MD, Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine
Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, University of NC School of Medicine
Marylyn M. Addo, MD, Ph.D., Director of International Programs, The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard
Frederick Altice, MD, Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Kevin Ard, MD, MPH, Clinical and Research Fellow in Infectious Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital
Wendy Armstrong, MD, Associate Professor, Emory University School of Medicine
Mauricio Hernández-Ávila, MD, MPH, PhD , Dean of the Mexico School of Public Health*, Director General of the National Institute of Public Health*
David Bangsberg, MD, MPH, Professor, Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
Ingrid Bassett, MD, MPH, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Christopher Beyrer,MD, MPH, Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health & Human Rights, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Henry Blumberg, MD, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Emory University School of Medicine
Paul Brandt-Rauf, DrPH, MD, ScD, Dean, UIC School of Public Health*
J. Kevin Carmichael, MD, Chief of Service, El Rio Special Immunology Associates
Richard E. Chaisson, MD, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and International Health Director, Center for TB Research and Center for AIDS Research, Johns Hopkins University
G. Thomas Chandler, MSc, PhD, Vice Provost for Health Sciences, Dean, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina*
Myron S. Cohen, MD, J. Herbert Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine, University of North Carolina; Chief, Microbiology and Immunology, Division of Infectious Diseases; Director, UNC Institute of Global Health
Deborah Cotton, MD MPH, Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine
James W. Curran, MD, MPH, Dean, Rollins School of Public Health
Edwin De Jesus, MD, Orlando Immunology Center
Carlos del Rio, MD, Hubert Professor and Chair - Dept of Global Health Rollins School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
Wafaa El Sadr, MD, MPH, Director of Medicine and Epidemiology, Columbia University; Director of the Int’l Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, Mailman School of Public Health
John R. Finnegan Jr., Ph.D., Professor and Dean, University of Minnesota School of Public Health*, Chair of the Board, Association of Schools of Public Health*
Gerald Friedland, MD, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health, Director, AIDS Program, Yale University
Howard Frumkin, M.D., Dr.P.H., Dean, School of Public Health, University of Washington*
Joel Gallant, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, John Hopkins University School of Medicine
Carol Dukes Hamilton, MD, MHS, Director, Scientific Affairs, Global Health, Population & Nutrition, FHI 360, Professor of Medicine, Duke University
W. David Hardy, MD, Director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Diane V. Havlir, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco
Martin S. Hirsch, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Lisa Hirschshorn, MD, MPH, Assoc. Dir., Int'l Monitoring, Evaluation & Quality, Partners in Health
Elizabeth L. Hohmann MD, Associate Professor of Medicine/Infectious Diseases Chair and Director, Partners Human Research Committees (IRBs), Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital
Charles Holmes, MD MPH, Director/Chief Executive Officer, Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
Michael Horberg, MD, MAS, Chair, Board of Directors, HIV Medicine Association
Rocio Hurtado, MD, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Emily P. Hyle, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases, Harvard Medical School
Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM, Dean and Distinguished Service Professor, School of Public Health, SUNY Downstate Medical Center*
Anne G Kasmar, MD MSc, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Salmaan Keshavjee MD, PhD, ScM, Director, Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change, Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H., Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health*
Lynn T. Kozlowski, Ph.D., Dean, School of Public Health and Health Professions*, University at Buffalo, State University of New York*
Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University School of Medicine, Director of AIDS Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Michael Leonard, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
Julie Levison, MD, MPhil, MPH, Division of Infectious Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Jonathan Li, MD, MMS, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Theresa Mack, MD, MPH Associate Medical Director, St Luke’s Medical Group
Kenneth Mayer, MD, Infectious Disease Attending and Director of HIV Prevention Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Visiting Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Medical Research Director, The Fenway Institute
Robert Meenan, Dean, School of Public Health, Boston University*
Veronica Miller, PH.D. Executive Director, Forum for Collaborative HIV Research
Richard Moore, MD, Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
David Paltiel, Ph.D., Professor, Yale School of Public Health
Tricia Penniecook, MD, MPH, Dean, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University*
Martin Philbert, Ph.D., Dean, School of Public Health, University of Michigan*
Christin Price, MD, MGH Clinical Infectious Disease Fellow, Harvard University School of Medicine
Natella Rakhmanina, MD, PhD, Spec Immunology Clinic Director, Children's National Medical Center
James L. Raper, DSN, CRNP, JD Professor of Medicine and Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Michael Saag, MD, Director, Center for AIDS Research, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Eileen Scully, MD, Ph.D. Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard
Maunank Shah, MD, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Stephen M. Shortell, Ph.D., Dean, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley*
Jeffrey S. A.  Stringer, MD, Professor and Director, Global Women’s Health University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Alan J. Taege, MD, Director HIV Care, Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Edwin Trevathan, M.D., M.P.H., Dean, College for Public Health and Social Justice, Saint Louis University*
Virginia Triant, MD, MPH, Infectious Diseases Division, Massachusetts General Hospital
Melanie Thompson, MD, AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta (ARCA)
Paul Volberding, MD, Professor of Medicine , University of California at San Francisco
Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Harvard School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Phillip L. Williams, Ph.D., Dean, College of Public Health, University of Georgia*

Organizations

Act V: the End of AIDS
AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth and Families
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
AIDS Policy Project, Philadelphia
AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition
AIDS United
AmFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research
American Medical Student Association
American Society for Clinical Pathology
AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention
Center for Health and Gender Equity
Community Access National Network
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
FHI 360
The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF)
Health GAP
HIV Medicine Association
HIV Prevention Justice Alliance
Human Rights Campaign
IDSA Center for Global Health Policy
International HIV/AIDS Alliance USA
International Rectal Microbicide Advocates
International Women’s Health Coalition
National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors
National Minority AIDS Council
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition
RESULTS
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Treatment Action Group

*Institutional affiliation is provided for identification only.