Beyond the Red Ribbon

According to the most recent global figures released by the United Nations, HIV/AIDS has taken the lives of over three million people in the past year. Meanwhile, an estimated five million people contracted HIV, swelling the ranks of those currently living with the disease to 40 million. Whether these grim figures may be familiar or new to you, they inevitably remain too abstract to convey the destruction wrought by the disease in the lives of individuals, families and communities throughout the world. Though certainly jarring, the figures fail to describe both the demographics of the disease and the efforts being undertaken to combat it.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is growing in almost every corner of the globe, but it is an especially great threat to human life in sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 60 percent of those currently infected. Already the poorest region in the world, sub-Saharan Africa continues to see its efforts at economic growth frustrated by a disease that kills farmers, teachers, and businessmen in the prime of their working lives. And HIV/AIDS reserves an especially cruel toll for society’s most vulnerable. Gender discrimination, physiological susceptibility, and economic inequality have combined to affect a profound demographic shift in the disease; almost 60 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and worldwide, women continue to be infected at a higher rate than men. As communities are left bereft of mothers and fathers, orphanages overflow, and grandparents are left to care for grandchildren. Worldwide, children themselves comprise one in every six deaths from AIDS.

In spite of such desolate circumstances, there are reasons to believe that human efforts can stem the tide of this pandemic. First of all, HIV/AIDS is no longer the death sentence it once was. Anti-retroviral therapy, a three-drug daily regimen used to treat the disease once it has progressed in the patient from HIV to AIDS, can transform HIV/AIDS into a manageable, chronic illness. And in the last few years, price reductions for anti-retroviral drugs in the developing world have made it possible to treat a patient for less than $140 per year. More than ever, it is possible to expand access to this life-saving therapy to each of the 6 million patients who currently need it. It is incumbent upon governments of both developed and developing countries to devote the resources necessary to do so.

Treatment will extend the lives of those currently infected, but we can also take active steps to prevent new infections from occurring in the first place. A comprehensive effort towards prevention requires a multifaceted approach.While education about condom use and behavioral change can help to reduce sexual transmission, and needle exchange programs have been proven to reduce infection rates among intravenous drug users, alone these programs are not sufficient. Expanded access to treatment is itself a prevention strategy with barely realized potential; in poor countries where patients are now treated with anti-retroviral drugs, public discourse about HIV/AIDS as well as demand for HIV testing and counseling have grown rapidly. Thus, improved health care becomes a public good by preventing new infections, not just supporting those who are already infected.

The crucial missing link in the fight against AIDS, though, is us. Harvard students have found a multitude of ways to join worldwide efforts to combat this crisis. International service, fund-raising, awareness projects, and scientific research are just a few of the avenues available to us as undergraduates. Historically, students have been some of the most active and powerful advocates in mobilizing the political will of governments. The global effort to fight HIV/AIDS is not dominated by any specific set of political ideologies or credentialed professionals. Today, World AIDS Day 2005, is a prime opportunity to discover how you can right now join the growing and dynamic movement to save our world from a preventable and treatable disease. You are a student, not an MD, a PhD, or a government official, but some lives will not wait until you graduate.



Matthew F. Basilico ’08, a Social Studies concentrator in Mather House, is president of the Harvard AIDS Coalition (HAC). Sarah A. Moran ’07, a Social Studies concentrator in Quincy House, is vice-president of HAC. Luke M. Messac ’08, a Social Studies concentrator in Mather House, is treasurer of HAC.