warning! boring, work-related post below...

so the big news at work today was that the president signed into law an act committing an unprecedented amount of money ($48 billion!!) to fight global hiv/aids, tuberculosis, and malaria. this act is a reauthorization of the president's emergency plan for aids relief (pepfar), which has been the primary source of funding for the global aids program, where i'm working on the surveillance team. so people are excited, and i can't even begin to imagine the scope of work that will be accomplished...even with that, though, just having had my teeny bit of experience...it's a really tough, uphill battle. as is true of many diseases, it's not just the biology of it...there are politics, cultural issues, injustices, inequities, stigma, discrimination...and when you add huge amounts of money into the mix...

don't get me wrong, though...there's been a lot of good work done. 1.7 million on treatment, which is a tremendous feat given the healthcare infrastructures in some of these countries. lots of capacity-building, prevention, education...i won't go into to much detail here, but you can read a little bit about it here or here (not that i expect you guys to read up on this, of course...if you actually do go there, keep in mind what websites you're reading...and you're as nerdy as i am.)

anyways, with pepfar being reauthorized, a lot of countries will be expanding their hiv/aids programs, and there will continue to be a lot of work for people like me. it's almost been a year now that i've been here, and i've been thinking through where i should be heading next...if i should stay at the cdc (in atlanta, or abroad?), or go work at an ngo (domestic, or abroad?). i really enjoy working at the cdc...i like the work, i like my team, i like the travel. and atlanta's not too bad...i'm making friends and i think that i've found a church (finally). but i miss la like crazy, and then there are the plans to go abroad, ultimately. and staying in altanta? really? i've been going back and forth a lot, but at this point, i'm leaning towards staying with cdc, though i'll try to get an overseas post...i think...yeah...maybe...