Since College President Jim Yong Kim's inauguration, Dartmouth has experienced a surge of interest in global health issues. With Kim's insight and influence in the global health field, current Dartmouth students have the opportunity to impact health policy like never before.
Their greatest chance lies in the fight against HIV/AIDS (a disease which affects over 33 million people worldwide), a cause to which President Barack Obama and the United States Congress have failed to fulfill their commitment. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama made a five-year, $50-billion pledge to the President's Emergency Plan for Funding AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That $50 billion target would have enabled a doubling of the number of people receiving HIV treatment. Yet, citing the economic crisis, the President has instead decided to flat-line funding for PEPFAR.
Research shows that treatment for HIV reduces the likelihood of transmission by 92 percent, suggesting the huge potential for virtually eliminating new infections by providing universal access to antiretroviral therapy. Yet HIV continues to spread rapidly, infecting over 2.5 million people every year. At the same time, people newly diagnosed with the virus, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are being placed on waiting lists for life-saving medication, told that they must wait for a current patient to die before they can begin treatment.
President Obama knows that students are calling on him to act. Student Global AIDS Campaign activists have interrupted Obama during stump speeches in New York, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Conn., over the past few months, instances that have generated international media attention. Students from the Dartmouth Coalition for Global Health and Social Equity were part of the student group that interrupted Obama in Boston last fall, holding signs that read, "Keep the Promise" and "$50 Billion for Global AIDS."
Such enthusiasm from students is particularly promising for Dartmouth's role in fighting AIDS. Dartmouth has already influenced the national discourse on health policy: The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which examines the distribution of medical resources throughout the nation, garnered attention in the debate over the health care reform law passed last year. In addition, President Kim's plan for the Center for Health Care Delivery Science promises to supply further innovative leadership.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of today's global AIDS campaign is its inclusiveness. No longer does this movement consist only of people affected by HIV/AIDS. Students like us play a key role. That's why our campaign seeks to build a permanent constituency of activists that can expand to tackle other pressing health challenges as well and our clout will leave our political leaders with no choice but to take action. Indeed, the diversity of our campaign presents an opportunity for many different Dartmouth student groups to build our movement.
AIDS is an issue that transcends medicine effective interventions must be framed in concert with international development, foreign policy and human rights. Further, because HIV is a chronic disease that requires lifelong treatment, putting systems in place to provide antiretroviral therapy simultaneously strengthens primary healthcare systems and builds capacity at the country level. Campus organizations concerned with any of these issues should also care about the president's failure to sufficiently fund global AIDS research.
The Republican takeover of the House in the 2010 election makes our task even more urgent. Republicans have insisted on spending cuts, especially for foreign assistance. We will not allow that dogma to become an excuse for neglecting global AIDS funding. The Republican primaries in New Hampshire next fall give Dartmouth students the unique opportunity to come together to demand that candidates address HIV/AIDS funding.
We can play a crucial role in pushing back against the false choices offered by these policymakers who deem some deaths too expensive to prevent and thereby perpetuate the AIDS pandemic. Our counterparts at universities around the world start revolutions certainly we can raise our voices to call for something so rooted in common sense as keeping a promise? Our fellow human beings on waiting lists for treatment expect nothing less.
