HIV/AIDS Preconference

"WE HAVE POWER OUR PATIENTS WILL NEVER HAVE"

Issues of HIV/AIDS dominated a full day of preconvention sessions on Wednesday. Keynote speaker Dr. Joia Mukherjee set the tone for the day when she asserted that the challenges of HIV/AIDS are formidable but not hopeless-and AMSA members can be a big part of the solution.

Recounting a childhood memory, Mukherjee said she first related poverty with disease after seeing a beggar with leprosy in Calcutta. "Bearing witness to suffering changes you; changes your psyche," she said. That change led to her interest in HIV/AIDS. "When I was in medical school, no one talked about AIDS and pandemics in the same sentence," she said, adding that this disconnect persists.

Mukherjee, now medical director of Partners in Health, urged students to look beyond the short-sighted arguments against fighting HIV in Africa before sending them into breakout sessions to learn how to get involved. "We have power our patients will never have," she reminded them.

Global AIDS Alliance executive director Dr. Paul Zeitz gave students a no-holds-barred rundown on U.S. government AIDS policy now that the dust and hype of November's election has settled. Zeitz called for "results-based" advocacy, mobilizing money to reach those who need it and setting treatment goals. Though it appears that AIDS funding was on track in the 2006 budget, Zeitz said, the impact of that funding depends on where and how quickly the president spends the money. "We just have to keep hammering."

Karen Meurer and Erin Raffety of Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger group, spoke to future physicians about connecting with faith-based groups for advocacy action. Most major religions want to work for justice, Meurer said, and turning these groups' compassion into action is a matter of connecting with them. Don't assume there are too many roadblocks in working with faith-based groups, Raffety added.

Dr. Richard Chaisson gave the afternoon's keynote speech, reinforcing medical students' role in advocacy. Relating his own transformation from an "isolated" medical student in 1977 to founder of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Tuberculosis Research, he encouraged the audience to act on their good intentions, challenging the system, changing the world and networking with like-minded people. As an example, he cited his own program to study novel approaches to the combination of TB and HIV, an area where public health has fallen short. "A lot of public health is dogma," he said, and encouraged students instead to pursue innovation to make a difference.

2005 Convention Recap