About the Author: Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.

Frontline health workers are an essential component of health systems worldwide — without them, there is no access to care for people living with HIV or anyone else. Yet in 2012, the World Health Organization estimates a shortage of at least one million frontline health workers worldwide, with Africa the region in greatest need. PEPFAR, in collaboration with partner countries, is pursuing a number of initiatives to respond. 

Our efforts are being reinforced by many actors around the globe. A growing number of health organizations, recognizing the life-saving impact frontline health workers offer, are committed to employing innovative strategies to address the crisis. Tomorrow, 37 of these organizations from the public… more »

World Health Day is celebrated on April 7 each year to commemorate the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 by the United Nations (UN). World Health Day 2011 focuses on educating people of all ages to the dangers of antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms and active steps that can be taken to combat it. In recognition of this day, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said:

“…This year’s theme focuses on combating the steadily growing public health threat posed by antimicrobial drug resistance — a growing problem with implications for both national and global security. Drug resistance also threatens to reverse global health gains by making currently available first-line medicines less effective…

By: Robert Sauers of USAID in Afghanistan.

USAID representatives joined the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), members of Parliament, health officials, and the international community on April 6, 2011, to celebrate World Health Day in Kabul. Under the theme “No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow,” the event highlighted the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance and called attention to the need for policymakers, civil-society and patient groups, health practitioners and prescribers, pharmacists and dispensers, as well as the diagnostic and pharmaceutical community, to develop a comprehensive plan to minimize health risks from exposure to microbes…