Sandy Thurman, International AIDS Trust, gives talk on fighting AIDS
8 March 2005

Ms Sandy Thurman, CEO of International AIDS Trust and former Director of National AIDS Policy at the White House, gave a talk on "Fighting AIDS Together" today in the Helix at DCU. Ms Thurman works with politicians and elected officials internationally to develop policies on AIDS.

She was a guest of the DCU Education Trust which organised the event, which was co-hosted by the School of Nursing, the School of Communications, the School of Law and Government and the DCU Students' Union.

Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU said, "Aids is a phenomenon which has had a devastating effect on the world. It is a major objective for us all to lend a hand in the fight against AIDS".

Ms Thurman said that this was a pivotal time in the epidemic that is AIDS. At present, 40m people live with the HIV virus, and of these, 30m are in Africa. 14,000 are daily infected with the virus which is equivalent to six people per minute. If this continues, more than 100m people worldwide will have AIDS by 2010.

Aids has also killed more people than all the conflicts on the African continent combined. However, AIDS should not be seen as an African issue; Russia has the highest infection rate, followed by the Caribbean.

There is no vaccine or cure in sight, so the fight against AIDS will continue for generations to come.

There has been a dramatic increase in support for the treatment and prevention of the disease. Senegal is an example of one country which succeeded in keeping the infection rate slow due to a comprehensive prevention campaign. Thailand is another, whose Ministry of Health acted quickly by encouraging prevention measures among the sex trade workers.

"We have a tendency to think that the epidemic is over", Ms Thurman said. "However it is women, children and young gay men who are showing an increased rate of infection. Complacency is our worst enemy. We would not have seen the increase in the infection rate if we had been more diligent".

She warned that if current trends continue, China and India are likely to experience the same rate of infection as that experienced by South Africa, whose rate went from 1% to 20% in eight years.

She ended by emphasising that AIDS is a gender issue. Young women and girls have less access to education and health-care. They are six times more likely to be infected by men, as they often trade sex for food and shelter. "If we don't address the issue of women, the war against AIDS will not be won".