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Issue: 142

Brighton’s students fight AIDS

Brighton & Sussex Medical School students were amongst 50 representatives from the national Student Stop AIDS Campaign, who met in Brighton in February to hear how they are making a difference in the global fight against AIDS.

Nicola Bradley, 22, is one of the students from Brighton. “Simple actions like sending a postcard to your MP really can make a difference to people living with HIV in the developing world.”

For their latest campaign the students organised 14,000 postcards to be sent to the UK government calling for their support for patent pools that can lower the cost of life-saving HIV medicines for poor people in developing countries.
“5,500 people die every day from AIDS. Only one in three has access to the treatment they need to stay alive,” explains Nicola. “I got involved in the student campaign because I saw there was a problem and there was something I could do about it. We have been campaigning for cheaper HIV drugs to be available for people living with HIV in poorer countries.

“This week we heard welcome news that global drugs giant GSK announced steps including using patent pools to tackle neglected diseases, but they didn’t include HIV. We now need to make sure that GSK supports a patent pool that includes HIV drugs and that other drug companies do the same,” she said.

At the meeting organised by the Brighton-based charity, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) and Students Partnership Worldwide who coordinate the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, a representative from the UK government’s Department for International Development will be attending to show how the concerns of campaigners are turned into government priorities and policy.

The Alliance works in 40 countries worldwide and will be giving the students examples of how combined efforts prevent HIV in countries such as Zambia where an estimated 1.1 million of the population are living with HIV and the Ukraine which has the highest HIV rate in Europe.

“The students’ actions are really making a difference to people in poorer countries trying to survive the AIDS epidemic. We wanted to encourage them by letting them know they are making an impact. Their contribution is absolutely vital,” said Anton Kerr, policy manager at the Alliance.

If you are a student and want to join the Student Stop AIDS Campaign, please contact Diarmaid McDonald, the campaign coordinator at:
diarmaid.mcdonald@spw.org<

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