Leaders discuss global plan to fight HIV/AIDS

Two global leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS spoke in Westwood on Monday about a new plan combating fatal trends in underdeveloped countries.

Killing 25 million and leaving 14 million orphans in its deadly path, the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is a great health challenge facing the 21st century.

Ambassador Mark Dybul, U.S. Global AIDS coordinator, and Dr. Alex Coutinho, executive director of The AIDS Support Organization, discussed the international response to the pandemic.

At the event, sponsored by the UCLA Healthcare Collaborative and School of Public Health, the speakers presented an optimistic outlook toward the future.

Dybul spoke first, addressing the Bush administration’s newest AIDS relief program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which provides funds for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs worldwide.

According to the U.S. Department of State, the plan “is the largest commitment ever by a nation for an international heath initiative dedicated to a single disease ““ a five-year, $15 billion, comprehensive approach to combating the disease around the world.”

The enormous scope of this new initiative has the capacity to produce a “ripple effect,” Dybul said.

HIV/AIDS prevention and education, while saving lives, also can “sustain the social fabric of a community through socio-economic factors,” he said. Through the prevention of infection and death comes the protection of families, teachers, healthy reproduction, productivity, and the economy, he said.

TASO provides care for 50,000 HIV-positive people, many of whom are using medical treatments with funds provided by PEPFAR. As the first indigenous AIDS organization in Africa, it focuses on community partnership rather than an impersonal “donor-recipient” mentality, Coutinho said.

For example, Coutinho described members of the TASO known as “drama members,” or HIV-infected workers who spread the organization’s message through song and dance.

“Barefoot doctors,” another creation of TASO, is a program where non-medical personnel on motorcycles deliver the pills personally. Not only does this ensure that the infected receive proper treatment, it provides connection and trust between TASO and the community, Coutinho said.

“There is the need to integrate the service and pills with a preventative message,” Coutinho said.

While currently providing treatment for half of the population, he hopes to increase the facilities’ capacity to reach the rest of Uganda with PEPFAR funding.

“The U.S. can learn much from the situation in Uganda,” the ambassador said. PEPFAR is an example of that influence, as it reflects a radically different approach toward the development of “partnership” than previous plans, he said.

Both speakers saw a brighter future with the implementation of PEPFAR.

“(The funds) have created the confidence to tackle the numbers,” said Coutinho.

Mark Ayling, an event organizer and foreign affairs campus coordinator, said a main goal of the event is increasing student involvement in foreign issues on campus.

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