Publication Date:
23 Aug 2014
Citation:
Pfeiffer J, Robinson J, Hagopian A, Johnson W, Fort M, Gimbel-Sherr K, et al. (2014). The end of AIDS and the NGO Code of Conduct. Lancet. 384(9944), 639-40. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61259-9
Abstract
Country ownership and health-system strengthening are key global health slogans in the current era of HIV/AIDS treatment scale-up. Their meaning, however, is hotly debated. Is country ownership equivalent to government ownership? 1 Which health system should be strengthened—health care delivered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the public sector, private for-profit organisations, or some combination of these actors? Although breakthroughs in HIV treatment have provoked rallying cries for an “AIDS-free generation” and the “end of AIDS”, these calls clash with the reality of understaffed public health systems across Africa that struggle to manage their current patient load, let alone the millions of additional patients who require treatment under new WHO HIV treatment guidelines.