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Glossary
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263 glossary AIDS (see HIV/AIDS). ART, or antiretroviral therapy (see also HIV/AIDS). The accepted multidrug therapy for treating HIV, ART consists of the use of at least three antiretroviral drugs to maximally suppress the HIV virus and halt progression of the disease . ART has produced huge reductions in death rates from HIV and is credited with shifting the status of HIV/AIDS from a fatal disease to a chronic one. Currently, an estimated thirty-three million people (thirty-one million adults and 2 million children) worldwide are living with HIV. Of these, over thirty million live in middle- and low-income countries. Two-thirds of all people infected with HIV reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately five and onequarter million (5.25 million) people had access to ART by the end of 2009, slightly more than half of all people in most urgent need of treatment. The World Health Organization sets ART treatment guidelines and provides support and guidance to countries in delivering therapy. To learn more, see http:// www.who.int/hiv/topics/treatment/en/index.html. CBOs, or community-based organizations. Nonprofit organizations that provide health or human services to meet the needs of local communities and populations (see also FBOs, NGOs). Clinton Foundation. The foundation’s global initiative has four major focus areas: education, energy and climate change, global health, and poverty elimination. President Bill Clinton established the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) in 2002, to close the gap in access to antiretroviral therapy (see ART) by negotiating lower prices and by working with governments to improve healthcare systems required to deliver ART. Since then, CHAI has expanded its scope, working to increase access to diagnostics and malaria medicines, and addressing issues related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic through (1) supporting governments to deliver HIV/AIDS services to underserved populations, such as children and those living in rural areas; (2) increasing countries’ human resource capacity to deliver care and treatment; and (3) preventing the transmission of the disease from mothers to their children. To learn more, see http:// www.clintonglobalinitiative.org. DOTS. The internationally recommended strategy for tuberculosis control and the foundation for the current Stop TB Strategy, introduced in 2006, to reduce the global burden of the disease. Originally, the DOTS acronym stood for 264 glossary Directly Observed Therapy—short course, describing two of the five essential components of the DOTS strategy. To bring attention back to all five components , the World Health Organization redefined DOTS as “the internationally agreed strategy for TB control.” The five elements of the DOTS strategy are: (1) political commitment to increased and sustained financing for TB diagnosis and treatment; (2) case detection through quality-assured bacteriological tests; (3) standardized treatment, with supervision and patient support; (4) an effective drug supply and management system; (5) a monitoring and evaluation system and measurements of the program’s impact. To learn more, see http:// www.who.int/tb/dots/en/. Endemic. The presence of a disease or infectious agent that is usual, constant, or highly prevalent within a geographic area or population. For example, malaria is endemic in many countries in Africa. Epidemic. The occurrence of an illness that is clearly in excess of what is normally expected in a population or geographic area. The word is also used to describe sudden, unexpected outbreaks of disease. External debt service. The total public and private debt of a country that is owed to outside creditors, and repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. External debt can include money owed to banks, other governments, or international financial institutions such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. FBOs, or faith-based organizations. These organizations are religious in nature, as distinguished from governmental or public organizations, or those that are private and secular. The term came into common use following President George W. Bush’s creation of the White House Faith-Based and Community Initiative, which seeks to assure that faith-based charities and organizations can compete with secular organizations for funding from the U.S. government to provide human services. Faith-based organizations have long played extensive roles in the provision of health and humanitarian aid services throughout the world, including in Africa. Foreign direct investment. A company’s physical investment in building a factory or providing machinery or equipment to build a business in another country, this may also include acquisition of a management interest in a company outside the home country, thus constructing a multinational corporation. Foreign direct investment plays...