Download - Ladny - dear secretary general - aids
Dear UN Secretary General:We Must Solve the AIDS Crisis, and Here is How
Mr. Joerg Ladny
IE Brown Executive MBA Application
2/2014
Dear Mr. Secretary General
• In this talk, I hope to convince you that:
• Responding to the AIDS crisis is worth your time and economic, social, and political investment
• There are many solutions available that are not currently being implemented; this is where you should invest.
1. Overview of Problem: Why HIV is a Problem• Deadly disease of the immune system
• People die of regular infections and tumors that would have been regularly cleared by the body
• Present treatments merely suppress virus
• No vaccine to prevent transmission sexually or during pregnancy
• No cure
• Infected people are discriminated against
• Presently, 34 million people globally have HIV
• Since discovered, has caused the death of 30 million people
1. Overview of Problem: Why HIV is a Problem
2. Overview of Problem: Who HIV Impacts
3. Overview of Problem: Challenges to Resolving HIV• Genetic Resistance: Inability of Treating HIV because the
Virus Mutates
• Sexual Transmission: Spread through a basic human need
• Lack of Education: About Transmission and Treatment
• Lack of Awareness of Illness: Lack of Testing
• Lack Access to Treatment
• Lack of Funding for Research
• Stigma against HIV patients
4. Responses to HIV We Need: Government• E.g. CDC and USAID in the USA, UNAIDS at the UN
• Increased funding for research to prevent genetic resistance
• Increased funding for Health Education in primary and secondary schools
• Increased funding for opportunities for treatment for those who are infected
• Increased accessibility of cheap testing options
• Increased funding for research for vaccines and cures
• Initiatives to prevent stigma against patients with HIV
5. Responses to HIV We Need: Business• E.g. Gates Foundation
• Improving incentive structures so that it is profitable to research HIV (vs. drugs for baldness)• Overcome resistance
• Find vaccines
• Find cures
• Increased funding for Health Education in communities
• Improving incentive structures so that it is profitable for pharmaceutical companies to produce HIV drugs for treatment in developing countries
• Creating new devices to cheaply test for HIV in resource poor settings
6. Responses to HIV We Need: Non-Profits• E.g. Partners in Health, Boston, MA & Haiti & Rwanda
• Community based treatment programs so as to deliver treatments where there is no government infrastructure
• Emphasis on Health Education and Prevention of Infection
• Activism to shame pharmaceutical companies into producing drugs that are needed for survival (HIV) vs. cosmetics (balding, better erections)
• Advocacy for increased access to testing to prevent transmission
• Initiatives to prevent stigma against patients with HIV
7. Responses to HIV We Need: Everyday Citizens• Activism to encourage governments to fund AIDS
treatments for poor and disadvantaged people (e.g. ACT UP; AIDS Action)
• Cross-cultural solidarity movements to advocate for the rights of persons with AIDS (e.g. World AIDS day)
• Bringing together scientists to collaborate on new cures (e.g. AIDS cure project)
8. Innovative Solutions We Need• Using social media to multiply the social effects of protests
and activism
• Crowd-sourcing fundraising for novel research cures (i.e. kickstarter.com)
• Redistribution efforts to bring medical advances to the developing world
References and Further Reading• UN AIDS
(http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/datatools/aidsinfo/ )
• HIV/AIDS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS)
• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/us/politics/01aids.html?_r=0
• www.actupny.org/
• www.aidsaction.org/
• www.actupny.org/ACP/ACP.html