When the clock struck 1 p.m. on Sunday and the dancers took a
seat, UCLA Dance Marathon committee members announced that the
event had raised $268,831.31 to fight pediatric AIDS. While the
event is over for UCLA students, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric
AIDS Foundation will use the money raised this weekend as part of
an on-going effort to find a cure, research drugs, and advocate
policy regarding AIDS.
The foundation funds research into finding an AIDS vaccine and
new treatments for those who do not respond to the medications
currently available. It also runs numerous care programs across the
globe.
EGPAF was created by Elizabeth Glaser, who contracted AIDS when
she received a blood transfusion while giving birth in 1981. Glaser
passed the disease to her baby daughter through breast milk and
later to her son Jake in utero.
When her daughter died in 1988, Glaser decided to find a way to
save her son. She met with two friends and created the
foundation.
“The foundation was started at a kitchen table with three
individuals,” the now-21-year-old Jake Glaser told the
dancers Saturday as they began the marathon.
The original goal was to find out how and why AIDS affects
children differently than adults so they could help Jake, said
Susie Zeegen, co-founder of the organization.
They had planned to join whatever team existed in this field,
“but there wasn’t even any team to join,” Zeegen
said.
There was minimal research being done on pediatric AIDS, so the
foundation “created the community,” she said.
Elizabeth Glaser died in 1994, but the Foundation has grown
exponentially since the 1980s. With about 130 employees
domestically and abroad and a total budget of about $80 million,
the organization can also advocate policy in Washington to
encourage drug companies to continue funding research and to urge
the government to ease restrictions on federal funding, said EGPAF
spokeswoman Sahar Moridani.
The policy department advocates a variety of legislation, such
as increasing pediatric drug testing and stem cell research,
according to the EGPAF Web site.
The foundation receives money from private donations,
corporations and federal programs, Moridani said.
But federal money has some restrictions. The use of some generic
drugs is not yet allowed through the President’s Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief, which greatly expanded the foundation’s
funding with its inception in 2003, she said.
HIV tests are funded through the federal program but certain
other tests are not, she said.
“So we absolutely rely on private donations like UCLA
Dance Marathon to fill in the gaps created by the
restrictions,” Moridani said.
Domestically, concerns center on finding a vaccine and drugs
that work for everyone, she said.
At the end of 2003, an estimated 1 million to 1.1 million people
in the United States had HIV/AIDS, according to the Center for
Disease Control Web site.
But EGPAF has extended its work to other countries. Abroad, the
concerns can be as simple as providing clean water with which to
administer medication or offering transportation to hospitals,
Moridani said.
Africa is the continent most affected by the pandemic. There are
25.8 million people with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, over
two-thirds of all people with HIV. Many of those infected are not
receiving treatment, according to the World Health Organization Web
site.
While accompanying Jake Glaser and others with EGPAF to
Tanzania, local Tanzanian journalists were amazed to see him active
and healthy, as it is rare for people with HIV/AIDS in the region
to be in that condition, Moridani said.