SARAH BETH MOORE
staff writer
There is something remarkable about a small private college uniting itself in spirit with victims of HIV and AIDS. Special convocations, pamphlets, posters and a tour through the African AIDS Tent last week were indications of a long-standing passion many at Pepperdine feel for the victims and heroes that suffer from this disease.
A sense of awareness and duty has not only spread through colleges such as Pepperdine, but the American people have reached a tipping point, as well.
Society is unwilling to let fellow humans fall to a disease that is so easily preventable and suffer from lack of medication that would be so easily available. Many respond by giving straight from their pocket books. America has expressed itself on all levels of donation, from Warren Buffet donating $31 billion to the Gates foundation to college students sacrificing $35 a month to sponsor an AIDS-affected child through World Vision.
However, the upcoming elections highlight what we believe the government should be doing to attack this epidemic. People can now choose to continue the course of action initiated by the nation’s previous president or spend more money in new ways. Global AIDs may not be what decides a person’s vote, but the candidates have put forth plans that are certainly worth considering.
What have we done about Global AIDS in the past?
Perhaps the greatest achievement of President Bush’s administration was his immediate and significant attack on AIDS in Africa. Bush’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the largest international fund dedicated to a single disease. With the addition of money given to the UNAIDS multinational fund and others, Bush has set a major initiative on education and medical relief overseas.
In 2003, when Bush first announced the plan, only 50,000 out of millions living with AIDS could afford medication. Now there are 1.3 million Africans currently on life-extending treatments. The money that has come from PEPFAR also goes into educating both HIV positive and negative people on how to prevent getting and giving the virus, and it supports many children left orphaned by the disease.
Still, the program is controversial. Money spent under the umbrella of PEPFAR often goes through corrupt governments, and money is sometimes mysteriously spotted in Swiss bank accounts.
The middlemen for the rest of the money are local churches in Africa that use the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Consistent use of condoms) approach set out by the president. Some people think it is inappropriate to extend our moral beliefs of abstinence to developing countries, while others think the last-ditch effort of just handing out condoms actually encourages sex to dangerous levels.
So what now? What do the candidates plan on doing?
The following is a crude breakdown of how much particular candidates want to spend and their attitudes toward preventative care.
In a 2007 interview, Sen. John McCain has said that he supports PEPFAR and plans on continuing such a monetary plan. This means he supports giving $|5 billion for Global AIDS in the next five years, not including what would be given to multinational programs and research. He would keep the morally conservative way of teaching about AIDS, emphasizing abstinence. He also heavily emphasizes financial accountability of the governments we are giving money to, so that money actually goes to AIDS efforts.
Sen. Barack Obama approves of the governments’ actions in the past and plans to add $1 billion more per year. He advocates more practical-based education that places condoms as a higher priority than pure abstinence when talking with Africans about the virus.
Hillary Clinton has made the most shocking move so far by pledging $50 billion by 2013 for AIDS efforts, yet she has not given an exact plan on when and where that money will be spent. She also supports evidence-based education, as does Obama.
It is important to remember that money pledged by the president has to go through Congress before it can be spent. That means these proposals might be sincere, but they are certainly not a guarantee.
What about medicine? How close are we to finding a cure?
A vaccine or microbicides are the only preventative hope for stopping the virus. Medicine has come a long way since the virus was first diagnosed in the 1970s.
The HIV virus is able to mutate faster than any sort of vaccine available today.
However, there is some promising research being done on “elite controllers,” people who have the virus but never get sick. Scientists have isolated a protein (FOX3a) present in only these people. This may be the key in therapies for all types of diseases involving the immune system. This includes anything from Hepatitis C, cancer or bone and organ transplant rejection.
Microbicides are the other avenue for preventative care. This is something a woman uses externally when a male refuses to use a condom. However, they have actually been thought to agitate the skin so much that it increases susceptibility to the virus. Still, research is promising here, and five more are being tested right now.
More than 40 million people are infected with AIDS, and 9,000 of those are dying every year. Research has allowed for the creation of antiviral drugs, which is a cocktail of three different medications that can increase the quality and longevity of life.
While this means that more money will be spent on drugs as infected people grow older, it also means they are given more time to care for potential orphans and more work for economies that need all the productivity they can get. It’s a very healthy tradeoff.
As just one person, what can I do?
Many wonder what merely talking and being educated about the problem can do for those in the horrible position of actually having the disease.
People know every dollar counts, but sometimes it seems they can’t give enough and are only one vote in the crowd of millions.
According to Geoffrey Baker, an active member of YIFTU: Acting on AIDS, “Every heart and mind touched by the ravages of global AIDS is one more chance for us to put an end to it. If you have passion and knowledge of AIDS and pass it on, there is no telling the creative minds it may eventually enter. Enthusiasm is free, and by passing it along you could eventually become part of the greater cure.”
03-27-2008