The Belt and Road Initiative and disease control amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a critical platform to fight COVID-19 through the strengthened collaboration, improved supply chain, elevated digital infrastructure, and more sustainable financing. BRI that integrate health with economic development may offer a new paradigm for building a resilient health system to address disease epidemics.

Estimating the impact of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief on HIV treatment and prevention programmes in Africa.

Background: Since 2004, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has supported the tremendous scale-up of HIV prevention, care and treatment services, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. We evaluate the impact of antiretroviral treatment (ART), prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programmes on survival, mortality, new infections and the number of orphans from 2004 to 2013 in 16 PEPFAR countries in Africa.

Methods: PEPFAR indicators tracking the number of persons receiving ART for their own health, ART regimens for PMTCT and biomedical prevention of HIV through VMMC were collected across 16 PEPFAR countries.

Beyond indicators: advances in global HIV monitoring and evaluation during the PEPFAR era.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is fundamental to global HIV program implementation and has been a cornerstone of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Rapid results were crucial to demonstrating feasibility and scalability of HIV care and treatment services early in PEPFAR. When national HIV M&E systems were nascent, the rapid influx of funds and the emergency expansion of HIV services contributed to the development of uncoordinated "parallel" information systems to serve donor demands for information.

PEPFAR, health system strengthening, and promoting sustainability and country ownership.

Evidence demonstrates that scale-up of HIV services has produced stronger health systems and, conversely, that stronger health systems were critical to the success of the HIV scale-up. Increased access to and effectiveness of HIV treatment and care programs, attention to long-term sustainability, and recognition of the importance of national governance, and country ownership of HIV programs have resulted in an increased focus on structures that compromise the broader health system. Based on a review published literature and expert opinion, the article proposes 4 key health systems strengthening issues as a means to promote sustainability and country ownership of President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other global health initiatives.

The United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief: a story of partnerships and smart investments to turn the tide of the global AIDS pandemic.

The United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has played a key leadership role in the global response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. PEPFAR was inspired by the principles of the historic Monterrey Consensus (United Nations. Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico, March 18-22, 2002.

The diagnosis and treatment of HIV-infected children in China: challenges and opportunities.

Background: HIV-infected children in China have not been well studied. This national survey describes the demographic characteristics and the associated diagnostic and antiretroviral treatment (ART) efforts directed toward surviving HIV-infected children.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the 6 provinces with the highest HIV prevalence: 4 former plasma donation (FPD) provinces and 2 intravenous drug use (IDU) provinces.

The Ahalaya case-management program for HIV-infected American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians: quantitative and qualitative evaluation of impacts.

The Ahalaya case management model was designed to provide culturally sensitive services to HIV-positive American Indians (AI), Alaska Natives (AN), and Native Hawaiians (NH). This program started in 1991 and expanded across the country in 1994. The evaluation plan included a client satisfaction survey, along with focus groups and key informant interviews.

AVERT: a user-friendly model to estimate the impact of HIV/sexually transmitted disease prevention interventions on HIV transmission.

Objective: To introduce the newly developed AVERT model by describing the purpose, logic, advantages and limitations of the model, to validate the model's estimates against seroconversion data from a large randomized controlled trial, and to provide practical examples of its applications.

Design: Static, deterministic spreadsheet-type model based on per sex act HIV-1 transmission probabilities.

Methods: Data from a recently completed trial carried out in Cameroon were used to validate the estimated number of new HIV infections generated by the AVERT model.

HIV seroprevalence, risk behaviors, and cognitive factors among Asian and Pacific Islander American men who have sex with men: a summary and critique of empirical studies and methodological issues.

The goals of this article are to (a) summarize and discuss published empirical studies addressing HIV seroprevalence rates and HIV-related behaviors and cognitive factors among Asian and Pacific Islander American (API) men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States, (b) examine existing population-based research methodologies for studying HIV and AIDS prevention, (c) describe a conceptual framework to facilitate the identification of ecologically sound or culturally appropriate and competent methodologies for studying HIV prevention among API MSM, and (d) discuss methodological issues and recommend alternative methodologies to better understand this population in HIV prevention. A total of eight published empirical studies reported the HIV seroprevalence rates, HIV-risk behaviors, and attitudes toward HIV and AIDS among API MSM. Specifically, seven studies reported HIV seroprevalence rates that were based on either self-disclosure of HIV status or HIV test results among the study participants.