Next month in Vienna, Austria, thousands of activists, community workers, donors, health leaders, and government officials will gather for the VVIII International AIDS Conference. This year’s theme is Rights here, right now: a mandate on the importance of health as a human right for all. While it is easy to talk about health as a human right, it is much more difficult to deliver to diverse communities in some of the poorest countries around the world.
Last year when President Obama announced his Global Health Initiative (GHI), he spoke about meeting the health needs of the world by leveraging current resources and integrating programs for greater health impact. Integrating HIV & AIDS services with other health services such as reproductive health (including family planning), TB, malaria, or maternal and child health increases effectiveness and ultimately sustainability.