Six of the nation’s leading experts on HIV/AIDS encouraged students, professors and visitors to become activists in the fight against the disease in Copley Formal Lounge Wednesday afternoon.
In commemoration of World AIDS Day, the participants joined in a town hall meeting on the impact of HIV/AIDS on girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa.
Janet Fleischman, advisor for the Global Coalition on Women and HIV/AIDS, said that most prevention programs fail to address the majority of those affected by the disease – women and girls.
“The face of AIDS in Africa is the face of a teenage girl,” Sam Worthington, national executive director of Plan USA, said.
Drawing on personal experiences in sub-Saharan Africa, the participants illustrated the situation in Africa and described measures currently being taken to fight the pandemic.
Georgetown Law Professor Lawrence Gostin said he received a phone call from University President John J. DeGioia, who said it was “unconscionable” that universities are not doing enough to combat the AIDS pandemic.
“We are in the midst of, I think, one of the greatest tragedies in the history of human rights and we’re simply not even beginning to do enough here in the United States and globally,” Gostin said.
Gostin said DeGioia wanted Georgetown to lead a consortium of universities in developing a response to the AIDS pandemic.
The only way to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Gostin said, is to make human rights the focal point of efforts to combat the illness. He said AIDS is a human rights issue as well as a health issue.
Gostin, like the other panelists, encouraged those present to take part in the fight against AIDS.
“Don’t make this World AIDS Day; make this world AIDS history,” Gostin said. “That is, we have to have an ongoing commitment to this problem.”
NHS Associate Professor Maryanne Lachat offered specific examples of how others could join the fight. University administrators need to get on board and support the fight by making a commitment to new medical research, she said.
She also called on university faculty to use other disciplines to teach about HIV/AIDS. English professors, for example, could use literature that features HIV/AIDS information, she said.
Lachat also encouraged students to participate in service projects.
She gave an example of one Georgetown student who organizes trips and accompanies local men and women to be tested for HIV/AIDS. He then helps them cope with the results.
Lachat also mentioned Samantha Tryon (NHS ’05), who formed the Georgetown University AIDS Coalition.
“I challenge everyone here not just to advocate for those who have HIV, but to be activists for those who have HIV,” Lachat said.
Dr. Angela Wakhweya of Save the Children USA, who said she would prefer to be “deep in Africa working in a clinic,” also encouraged students and others to take part in the fight against AIDS.
“I encourage you to do something, one thing, anything,” she said.
The panelists also received questions from the audience.
Dr. Deborah Parham Hopson, associate administrator for HIV/AIDS at the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was asked about the Bush administration’s abstinence-only policy. She said that the policy is not actually abstinence-only.
She explained the so-called “ABC approach” – A for “abstinence,” B for “be faithful” and C for “use condoms.”
Fleischman, however, said an “ABC-plus” policy is needed. She proposed an additional D, E and F, for “disclosure in safety,”education for females” and “female-controlled prevention technologies.”
Fleischman said the focus of ABC does not go far enough. She said women often have too little control in their sexual encounters to remain abstinent or ensure faithfulness and the use of condoms.