World AIDS Day 2009: Remembering and Looking Forward
Posted on Dec 1, 2009 by Jon
Remembering. Looking forward.
Today marks an important opportunity for each of us to reflect upon the devastation that the AIDS pandemic has had on communities across the globe. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and currently more than 33.2 million people worldwide are 
infected with HIV worldwide. This map shows the world with each country scaled by the number of absolute deaths due to HIV in one year (2002). Considering that HIV is treatable, this map highlights the injustice that exists in our collective inability to provide equitable treatment access to people infected with HIV.
Today however, is also a chance for us to look forward and re-address our efforts to change this current, tragic reality. Efforts throughout the world are making great strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Whether it be innovative models of providing high quality care to the poorest in the world, negotiating lower priced HIV medications and diagnostics, or the search for an effective HIV vaccine - these are reasons for hope.
GlobeMed is also working to make its own small impact in the fight against AIDS and for social justice. Several GlobeMed chapters support grassroots health organizations that are on the front lines, working to support those living with the disease and poverty. Here are what some of GlobeMed's chapters are doing to commemorate World AIDS Day:
- UNC Chapel Hill supports Health Alert Uganda, a grassroots health organization working to improve access to ARVs for people living in Gulu, Uganda. They will stand in solidarity with those that suffer from the virus, as they did last year (seen in the photo above), in the shape of the AIDS ribbon to remember, honor, and continue to mobilize resources for those fighting equitable access to treatment.
- Rhodes College will host a panel to explore the social and medical complexities of HIV in communities in Memphis and around the world. The panel will include two women's health specialists and a professor of medical anthropology, and will probe at challenge and necessity of addressing both the social and medical components of the disease.
- Columbia University will host a talk by Dr. Roy Cohen, the medical director for the substance abuse program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Cohen will speak about his experience working with AIDS patients in New York City in the early 1980's and how the experienced shaped his career path. As a physician focusing on social medicine, he will explain why HIV and substance abuse need to be addressed with tools that extend past the clinical into the interpersonal and community level.
The theme for World AIDS Day 2009 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'. Please join with us today in reflecting on AIDS tragic legacy as well in fighting for a more just future: a world where universal access to treatment is truly considered a human right. Here are some more sites, resources, and tools for further learning and action:- Consider voting for both GlobeMed and FACE AIDS in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook! All it takes is two simple clicks and you could help both organizations win $25,000!
- White House Proclamation -- World AIDS Day
- Resource recommendations
- Calendar of events in the US and around the world
- UNAIDS
- PEPFAR - Working together on World AIDS Day
In Solidarity,
The GlobeMed National Office
Today marks an important opportunity for each of us to reflect upon the devastation that the AIDS pandemic has had on communities across the globe. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007, and currently more than 33.2 million people worldwide are infected with HIV worldwide. This map shows the world with each country scaled by the number of absolute deaths due to HIV in one year (2002). Considering that HIV is treatable, this map highlights the injustice that exists in our collective inability to provide equitable treatment access to people infected with HIV.
Today however, is also a chance for us to look forward and re-address our efforts to change this current, tragic reality. Efforts throughout the world are making great strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Whether it be innovative models of providing high quality care to the poorest in the world, negotiating lower priced HIV medications and diagnostics, or the search for an effective HIV vaccine - these are reasons for hope.
GlobeMed is also working to make its own small impact in the fight against AIDS and for social justice. Several GlobeMed chapters support grassroots health organizations that are on the front lines, working to support those living with the disease and poverty. Here are what some of GlobeMed's chapters are doing to commemorate World AIDS Day:
- UNC Chapel Hill supports Health Alert Uganda, a grassroots health organization working to improve access to ARVs for people living in Gulu, Uganda. They will stand in solidarity with those that suffer from the virus, as they did last year (seen in the photo above), in the shape of the AIDS ribbon to remember, honor, and continue to mobilize resources for those fighting equitable access to treatment.
- Rhodes College will host a panel to explore the social and medical complexities of HIV in communities in Memphis and around the world. The panel will include two women's health specialists and a professor of medical anthropology, and will probe at challenge and necessity of addressing both the social and medical components of the disease.
- Columbia University will host a talk by Dr. Roy Cohen, the medical director for the substance abuse program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Cohen will speak about his experience working with AIDS patients in New York City in the early 1980's and how the experienced shaped his career path. As a physician focusing on social medicine, he will explain why HIV and substance abuse need to be addressed with tools that extend past the clinical into the interpersonal and community level.
- Consider voting for both GlobeMed and FACE AIDS in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook! All it takes is two simple clicks and you could help both organizations win $25,000!
- White House Proclamation -- World AIDS Day
- Resource recommendations
- Calendar of events in the US and around the world
- UNAIDS
- PEPFAR - Working together on World AIDS Day
The GlobeMed National Office
