(The Huffington Post) — This May, President Obama’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) held a meeting to discuss how to tackle the U.S. epidemic. What made this meeting different from past iterations was the diverse group of people in attendance — government officials, private sector foundations, corporations as well as national advocacy and service organizations. ONAP will issue this country’s first National AIDS Plan (The Plan) over the coming weeks incorporating the results of this meeting as well as town hall meetings that it has held in 14 cities. The Plan has enormous political significance and it has been a long time in coming. Under The President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was established by President Bush in 2003, the United States has required countries to have such a plan to receive U.S. funds for their HIV and AIDS programs. Yet 26 years into the epidemic, our country has never had one itself.
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