News

Experts to Focus on HIV/AIDS and Global Policy at Alumni Day 2007

(Reprinted from EPH Today)

HIV/AIDS is no longer seen as just a health problem – it is a human development challenge that is gripping the world. It is a challenge that inflicts disproportionate burdens on low and middle income nations, and within them, the populations of the economically disadvantaged, women, children, the socially invisible and sexual minorities. It also has a devastating effect on the underpinnings of the afflicted nation - its leaders and government, civil society and human rights, health and education services, economic, public and private sectors. HIV/AIDS reverses gains in building basic human capacities and denies people the opportunity for living long, healthy, creative and productive lives.

It has been twenty five years since the first report of the disease, and the statistics are daunting:

  • More than 65 million persons have been infected with HIV – and more than 25 million have died.
  • Today, 40 million people live with HIV and 4.3 million new infections occurred last year alone.
  • 95% of HIV infections and deaths have occurred in developing countries.
  • In these same countries, only about 1 in 5 people who need antiretroviral drugs receive them.
  • 380,000 infected children died from AIDS last year. Only 10% of children who needed antiretroviral drugs received them.
  • 15.2 million children are orphans due to AIDS, with that number expected to grow to 20 million by 2010.
  • More new infections and deaths occurred in 2005 than ever before.

The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS continues to be a clarion call to action for leaders in public health, as well as human development, economics, government, international security, and human rights. For the first time since the disease was identified, Alumni Weekend will focus on bringing together public health and health policy professionals who are addressing the epidemic in all corners of the world and who will show how these sobering statistics have been the impetus for creative approaches in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The speakers will discuss what nations can do as members of the interconnected global village to address HIV/AIDS and the role of donor agencies and countries in establishing programmatic action at the scale necessary to achieve commitments to the cause. This is the crisis of our generation and one that must be solved in our lifetime.

Participants will receive an update on the global impact of 25 years of the AIDS epidemic, focusing on specific regions whose economic, political, cultural and social resources have been dramatically affected by the disease. They will have a better understanding of specific strategies that have been successfully employed to address the spread of the disease and the impact on individuals, communities, institutions and society.

Honored at the annual Awards Luncheon this year will be Elaine Anderson, MPH ‘76, who will be the recipient of the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award; Kaakpema Yelpaala, MPH ’06, who will receive the New Professionals Award given in memory of Eric Mood, MPH ’47; Public Service Honor Roll inductees will be Edith Pestana, MPH ‘93 and Kaveh Khoshnood, MPH ’89, PhD ’95; and the Bulldog Award will be given to Carolyn Millman MPH ‘84. Alumni Day also includes an invitation for alumni to attend a dessert reception honoring the 150th anniversary of the graduation of Dr. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed and celebrating 150 years of diversity in public health and medicine.

The day will round out with a traditional New England Lobster and Clam Bake shared with YSM alumni on the Harkness Patio. Then on Saturday June 2, at 2:00 pm, in the Jane Ellen Hope Building, Room H110, 315 Cedar Street. YSM will honor the Family of Dr. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed at a reception. There will be presentations by Forrester Lee, MD, Assistant Dean of Multicultural Affairs, Donald Moore, MD, MPH, Past-President, AYAM and Curtis Patton, PhD, Professor Emeritus.

Alumni Day Brochure