Five students from the Washington University School of Medicine traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby members of Congress for increased funding of AIDS programs on March 11. The students asked senators and representatives to commit more money to the United Nations Global AIDS Fund and to add money earmarked for fighting AIDS to President Bush’s Emergency Supplemental Fund.
Ashley Steed, a WUSM student who made the trip, said that she enjoyed the experience because it increased her awareness of the influence doctors-even future doctors -can have in the political realm.
“We did this not just to be activists, but also to learn about how to advocate for our future patients,” Steed said. “We are not just going to be diagnosing strep throat, but also impacting the lives of patients around the world.”
Steed joined fellow WUSM students David Fessler, Lorie Harper, Virginia Pierce and Brandon Rocque. Accompanying them were approximately 50 other student representatives of the Student Global AIDS Campaign.
Only a year old, the Global AIDS Fund is the creation of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. While Annan hoped that the fund would be able to use $7 to $10 billion per year to fight AIDS, recent reports show that the AIDS fund is only a tenth of the way to that goal. Fessler said that part of the reason for this deficiency in funding is the fault of the United States.
“The U.S. produces about 25 percent of the world’s Gross National Product, so our expected share would be around $2.5 billion of the AIDS Fund,” Fessler said. In actuality, the U.S. has contributed only a fraction of that amount.
The students also asked the members of Congress and their staffers to give Bush money so that he can target AIDS prevention in his Emergency Supplemental Fund. Created after September 11 to fight terrorism, this account and its funds are intended to fight terrorism around the world. Fessler said he believes that AIDS is an important issue related to terrorism.
“AIDS really is a national security issue, because within 10 years, you will have 40 million orphans in Africa due to AIDS,” Fessler said. “That is going to destabilize the continent and turn it into a breeding ground for terrorism, unless we do something about it.”
Fessler believes that he and his fellow students were successful in lobbying this point. Within the past week, he received confirmation that Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, and Senator Jack Reed, D-RI, are going to sign a letter requesting that their colleagues give Bush additional money in his Emergency Fund to fight AIDS. The letter was originally written by Senator Richard Durbin, D-Il.
Fessler participated in the event because he thinks AIDS is an important issue that affects people worldwide. According to the United Nations, there are approximately 40 million people around the world infected with HIV; more than 28 million of those people live in Africa. Last year, AIDS killed 2.3 million African people, making it the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa. Throughout the world, the disease is the fourth-largest killer.
“AIDS is the biggest infectious disease in recorded history.It’s worse than the plague, and we think the U.S. can be doing a lot more to solve this problem,” said Fessler. “As medical students, we have an interest not just in the patients we meet with on a personal basis, but also in having a greater social conscience.”

Contact Jonathan at
jonathan.greenberger@studlife.
com

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