10 Million HIV-AIDS Deaths Preventable by 2025
As delegates begin to gather for the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria we are hearing that at least 10 million HIV-AIDS deaths could be averted by 2025. Michael Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director says that in order to do so we must reshape the AIDS response through innovation that would bring down costs so that investments can reach more people.
To learn more about the radically simplified HIV treatment platform called Treatment 2.0, take a look at this article by Andre Picard from the Globe and Mail or see this information from UNAIDS.
Published by: GiveADay on July 15th, 2010 | Filed under Give a Day 2010, HIV/AIDS in Africa, Media, Workplace CampaignsComment now »
World AIDS Day 2009 – We Share This Path Together
Dr. Jane Philpott, Give a Day Founder writes…My love of African proverbs is no secret. It always makes me happy to stumble on a new proverb about health or education or justice. This week I learned a new proverb from Burkina Faso that speaks to the work of the Give a Day movement. It says: “If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk with others.”.
To reach a world without AIDS, we have to walk far. We must therefore walk the path together.
How I wish we could walk fast and see this pandemic ended immediately. Every extra day that it takes means a difference between life and death for thousands. The solutions are not simple. Clearly we need to “walk with others”. When we do work together, I’m convinced the problem of HIV is solvable.
Yesterday in this blog, Tim O’Shea wrote about the heartwrenching statistics on vertical virus transmission. He said that “The fact that transmission of the HIV virus from mother to child continues to occur at such rates at a time when we know how to reliably manage this risk should be source of shame for the entire international community.” I wholeheartedly agree. So what will it take?
It will take money… large amounts of money from the international community and smaller amounts of money raised by movements like Give a Day.
It will take political will… which is built by movements like Give a Day where ordinary people act in solidarity with people they will never meet to address an injustice that affects us all.
It will take solid infrastructure to be built and maintained in order to deliver and sustain the top-quality healthcare systems that everyone with HIV must be able to access.
It will take a concerted commitment to address all of the global issues that impact health including food security, gender equity, education and more.
We may be daunted by the magnitude of the task. But we have already come a long way. In the five years since the Give a Day movement started, the number of people in the world on antiretroviral treatment has increased by ten-fold! This has happened through extraordinary efforts of countless people around the world.
To reach a world without AIDS, we have to walk far. We share this path together.
Please engage in an act of solidarity today. Please give a day’s pay… because a day makes a world of difference.
Dr. Jane Philpott, Founder of Give a Day to World AIDS
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News from Malawi- HIV/AIDS is “Coming Out”
Dr. Lorna Adams, Give a Day supporter writes…It is becoming clear to me, as I spend more time in Malawi working in the HIV/AIDS Clinic run by Dignitas International, that HIV and AIDS are coming ‘out’ in Malawi. There are posters everywhere, encouraging people to “know your status”. Signs in stores and offices ask people to reduce transmission of the virus by using condoms, and there are education programs in schools about how the virus is transmitted. Posters encourage people to be tested, and there is a significant attempt to reduce the ‘stigma’ of being diagnosed HIV positive.
In the nursing school that is associated with the Zomba Central Hospital and the Tisungane Clinic, I walked by a sign showing two young people, gazing into each other’s eyes, with the caption “AIDS/HIV….if you don’t have it, don’t get it. If you have it, don’t pass it on”. It was quite clear and to the point.
I worked with Alice Kadzanja in Malawi, a nurse who was portrayed in Stephanie Nolen’s remarkable book, “28 Stories of AIDS in africa”. Alice is HIV positive, and supports people in their decision to consider being tested, using herself as an example of someone who was sick, and is now well because of treatment. Alice played volleyball on the Clinic Sports Day, proudly wearing her T shirt which declared “ARV’s are essential drugs for people with AIDS”.
Nurse Alice Kadzanja, Tisungane Clinic, Malawi
I met another woman on a bus, who was happy to have me photograph her with her shirt that proclaimed for all to see that she was on therapy. It is actions like this that reduce the stigma of being diagnosed HIV positive, and encourage people to discuss their risk of infection. The Dignitas Program has allowed many people in the Zomba area of Malawi to understand that AIDS is a treatable disease. In a continent where HIV infection knows no age, socioeconomic, educational, gender, political or cultural bias, this is a remarkable and very important step forward in the fight against this pandemic.
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Update from Malawi – Dr. Lorna Adams – Elizabeth and Innocencia
Dr. Lorna Adams, Give a Day supporter writes…My very special watch, given to me as a birthday present six years ago by my children, stopped working during my first week of volunteering in the Tisungane HIV/AIDS clinic in Malawi. That my watch was broken upset me deeply, made me miss home, and got me thinking about birthdays. With a start, I realized that when I received that watch, 6 years ago, I had already outlived the projected lifespan for most Malawians. With a shudder, I understood that my watch was older than many children could expect to live if they were born with HIV and did not receive antiretroviral treatment (ART). That quickly put an end to my concern about a watch, and put my work in a very different perspective.
This week, I saw the devastation caused by untreated HIV infection, and learned the stages of progression to full AIDS. I learned how to classify a patient, depending upon their symptoms and their CD4 count, into a ‘WHO’ (World Health Organization) stage of illness, from 1 to 4, that allowed decisions to be made about appropriate treatment. I was able to see that, in the Tisungane Clinic, care and treatment can be offered to all who need it no matter how many people were in the line up. I started my first patient on antiretroviral treatment, with guidance from the Malawian nurses and Clinical Officers who so efficiently and helpfully taught me the ropes.
Staff at the Tisungane Clinic.
I was able to sort through the lifeline of heathcare here, the Health Passbook, a health record that every Malawian carries to all medical visits.
Malawian Health Passport
I could see their CD4 counts and read about previous opportunistic infections that are a sign of HIV, such as shingles or fungal infections of the skin, and determine if a patient should be started at that point on ART (Antiretroviral Therapy). And so we started Elizabeth, a 30 year old mother of 9 year old Innocencia, on medication. They had walked miles to the clinic, and Elizabeth was so thin that I think the child with her was more than half her weight. She received counseling about her medications and possible side effects from the counseling team, supplemental nutritional aids from the nutrition team, and finally, was taught again how to take her medicine, every morning and every evening, m’mawa and madzulo, 6 am and 6 pm, for the rest of her life. There is no doubt in my mind that she will, and because of Dignitas, she will soon be well enough to care again for the child that was caring for her.
Published by: GiveADay on November 16th, 2009 | Filed under HIV/AIDS in Africa, Recipient News, Workplace CampaignsComment now »
Cassels, Brock and Blackwell, LLP launch their Give a Day 2009 Campaign
Laura Shiner, Articling Student at Cassels, Brock and Blackwell, LLP writes…
The Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP Give a Day team kicked off our 2009 campaign on November 10 by hosting a lunch lecture with James Fraser, the co-founder of Dignitas International. We had a great turnout as over one hundred partners, associates and staff came out to show their support and learn about one of the recipient organizations that Give a Day supports.
James Fraser, co-founder of Dignitas International
Fraser spoke about the work Dignitas is doing in Malawi and the changes that have occurred in the Zomba District since 2004. When he first arrived in Malawi, Fraser came face to face with a community without hope. Nurses in health care centers sat behind their desks drinking tea because they were completely overwhelmed by the number of patients in their care. Frightened mothers refused to care for their infants because they feared getting sick from their IVs. Thousands of Malawians sat on their doorsteps waiting to die.
Now, only a few years since Dignitas’ work began, there have been extraordinary changes. 60,000 pregnant women have accessed Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission services to help prevent transmission of HIV to their newborns. More than 10,500 children and adults have been started on life-extending anti-retroviral therapy.Along with this, the overall mood of the community is more optimistic, and health care workers are described by Fraser as having “a spring in their step.” The people in the Zomba District are leading productive lives once again.
Dignitas is now preparing to begin “Phase 2” of its activities in Malawi, which means expanding throughout the country and repeating the successes from Zomba District in other communities.
The CBB Give a Day team hopes that we can exceed our campaign goals for 2009 in order to support Dignitas International and the Stephen Lewis Foundation, in such worthwhile ventures.
Tilly Gray, member of the Cassels Give a Day 2009 Committee
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