[Ip-health] UFlorida story re UAEM chapter hosting AIDS-Free World's Stephen Lewis

[Sarah Rimmington]

http://alligator.org/articles/2008/04/04/news/campus/080404_lewis.txt

The [University of] Florida Alligator
April 4, 2008
UF hosts AIDS-Free World speaker Stephen Lewis
By RACHEL ARROYO, Alligator Writer


A shrill cry pierced the air of a hospital room in Zambia as a young
woman fell to her knees, clutching a limp bundle wrapped in a white sheet.

Stephen Lewis turned around to see the woman collapsing into a doctor's
arms, and his mind flashed back to the room he visited earlier, where
dozens of infants lay crying.

Lewis, co-director of AIDS-Free World, spoke to an audience of about 60
in UF's Pugh Hall Thursday night about the role universities play in
making medicine available to AIDS-affected countries.


At that hospital in Zambia, Lewis heard the same cry reverberating
through the halls every 20 minutes as mother after mother mourned a
daughter or son lost to AIDS.

This is one of the images that Lewis, 70, brushes his teeth to at night
and sips his coffee to in the morning.

This is the reason why Lewis, former U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in
Africa, has devoted his life to fighting the AIDS pandemic.

"I don't know how to convey this to you, but there are monumental lives
at stake, and these drugs are everything to people in the developing
world," Lewis said.

Hosted by UF's chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines,
Lewis agreed to come to UF to support the organization's push for
humanitarian licensing of new drugs and technology developed by the
university.

By participating in systematic humanitarian licensing, UF would be
giving affordable generic brands the rights to use drugs in countries
where needed, instead of giving those rights to powerhouse
pharmaceutical companies.

In Africa, more than 14 million women are infected with HIV, and about
500,000 children have the infection, Lewis said. Before those children
celebrate their fifth birthday, about 400,000 of them are dead. The
numbers could be reduced if Africans had access to affordable medicine,
he said.

Lewis pointed out that while Africa has a rampant AIDS pandemic, it
represents only 3 percent of sales for the pharmaceutical market.
Name-brand drugs are unaffordable for most Africans, and the big
pharmaceutical companies are more concerned with profit than with
providing drugs where they're most needed, Lewis said.

In an interview before the discussion, Lewis said that he agrees with
studies showing that today's youth are more civic-minded and socially
responsible.

"There's a tremendous renaissance of interest and engagement among young
people," he said.

For this reason, Lewis never gives up an invitation to speak at a
university, even if it means flying from Canada to Gainesville.

Jon Arp, a fourth-year finance student, was moved by Lewis's discussion
on AIDS and the descriptive details that made the problem concrete for him.

"He was probably one of the most engaging public speakers I've ever
heard," Arp said. "And, his points can't be disputed."

UF student Gloria Tavera, a member of Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines, feels that UF has an obligation to use its patents and
technology to make drugs available to HIV patients.

"It is our conviction that universities, and specifically UF as a large
research institution, can do more to increase global access to the
essential medicines we develop through generic licensing to developing
nations," Tavera said.

--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/