Laura Bush was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last week, and she visited the GHESKIO HIV/AIDS clinic, which I visited this past January for an article on implementation research in our March issue. Bush was there drumming up support for The United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), according to The Boston Globe.

President George Bush started PEPFAR in 2003, dedicating $15 billion to the effort over five years. Last Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation that boosts PEPFAR's budget to $50 billion and extends the program for another five years. When I was in Haiti, I learned that a lot of the antiretroviral drugs that GHESKIO dispenses free of charge to Haitian HIV/AIDS patients are bought with PEPFAR money.

The Globe reported that the First Lady "barely set foot outside a car or building during the tightly managed trip," while in Port-au-Prince, which is understandable given the still-precarious security situation in Haiti's capital - especially in the neighborhoods surrounding the GHESKIO center.