 |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
 |
|
||||||||
|
 |
 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
MEDICAL STUDENTS
AND THE AIDS EPIDEMIC
|
||||
 |
|
|
||
|
This site was in part inspired by the work of the Student Global AIDS Campaign to increase student opportunities for externships abroad that relate specifically to the AIDS epidemic. In case you weren't able to make it to the SGAC and Physician's for Human Right's AIDS in Africa week presentations during the week of April 8-12, here is a quick run down on the problem and how you can help. Top Ten Countries Affected By the AIDS Epidemic (and the adult rates of AIDS as of June 1999)
These numbers were taken from the online UNAIDS country-specific Epidemiological Fact Sheets on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The data in these reports was gathered in 1999 - therefore this list is not currently accurate, but is given as a reference with the assumption that the reader understands that the current rates are much higher and the rankings here do not neccessarily reflect the current order of rank. If you are interested in more general UNAIDS information you can go to the UNAIDS website. Also, as you can see, all of the above are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. While this remains the area of the world that is hardest hit by the epidemic, rates in other areas of the world are rising incredibly quickly as well. Countries in other regions with high (and rapidly growing) rates of HIV/AIDS include:
HOW CAN GET INVOLVED? One of the best ways to get involved in fighting the epidemic is to go and see it first hand. If you are interested and motivated, the fourth year externship is ideally designed for this. As we have mentioned, simply doing a rotation in any of the countries listed above will expose you to the realities of the AIDS crisis; however, there are organizations and programs set up to help you increase your impact and involvement in the crisis. For more information on these, see the previous page's list of possibilities. And if you want to talk to a Tulane student who has been there, feel free to contact Bev Tew (Burkina Faso and Senegal), Charity Milne (Zimbabwe), or Dave Melton (South Africa) with questions about their experiences in the field. Another way to get involved, if you can't make it all the way in person, is to send much-needed medical supplies to these countries with Tulane students who are able to go, or through an organized equipment or drug-recycling program. REMEDY (Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World) was started in New Haven to help hospitals salvage unused equipment and send it overseas. Drug-recycling is a more controversial issue, and it is up to you to decide if it is something that you support. If you do, AMSA is publicizing a drug recycling project for gathering unused HIV Medicines for Guatemala or Haiti run by Dr. Matt Anderson, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Also, Sanjay Basu, a student at Harvard, is trying to bring AIDS drugs to Haiti. If you are interested in more information about what is being done in the US and internationally to try and stop the pandemic, please check out the following sites:
Also thanks to everyone who bought a ribbon at the AIDS in Africa table. PHR/SGAC raised about $800 for the Nyumbani AIDS Orphanage in Kenya and the impact of this nationally organized week is already being felt in Congress; the Committee on International Relations hearings on "AIDS and Children: Prevention and Care in Africa" just started on April 17th. One of the star witnesses is Father Angelo D'Agostino, S.J., M.D., of the Nyumbani Orphanage of Kenya - it really is a small world!
|
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
