Get to Zero

This year’s World AIDS Day theme is about getting to zero – zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination. Medical students around the world gather this week on the local, national and international level to mark the World AIDS Day. Together they have extensively organized conferences, lectures, peer education training sessions, flash-mobs, parties and concerts in order to spread awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS. Thousands of them with one strong message – ‘Get To Zero!’

Uniting their activities together on the international level, they produced the IFMSA World AIDS Day 2011 video and the IFMSA World AIDS Day 2011 posters that demonstrate medical students from 27 countries representing the number of new HIV infections per year in their countries. The physicians-in-training capture their inspiration to reducing the number of new HIV infections per year to zero. These not only inspired, but aware medical students recognize that controlling and eradicating the spread of the virus is the only truly effective way forward in the HIV/AIDS epidemic: ”We in IFMSA decided to raise our voices in highlighting the importance of making new HIV infections get to zero.”

Overview
Thirty years into the HIV epidemic provides us an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved and what needs to be done. Looking at the UNAIDS Global Reports of 2009 and 2010, the number of AIDS-related deaths is stabilizing on an estimate of 1.8 million which is seemingly lower than years before. This success is thanks to the important achievements in the treatment of the virus and in delaying the AIDS defining illnesses and death. However, 10 million people still need treatment and do not have access to antiretroviral therapy. Recently the data shows that in some high-income countries where the treatment has been made widely available, the number of new HIV infections is increasing, especially in some populations (i.e. men having sex with men). Comparing the number of new HIV infections on a global level in 2009 and 2010, we see the increase from an estimate of 2.7 to 2.8 million new HIV infections per year. Although it is lower than in the late 1990s, the trend of new HIV infections per year is again increasing, and the time is now to reverse it before it takes the swing with the consequences that could be devastating.

IFMSA’s Perspective
We, in IFMSA believe that the more treatment we have, the more prevention we need! Latest results showing that treatment as much as prevention can reduce the risk of transmission of HIV by 96% are encouraging and exciting, but still it will take years to put the estimated 10 million people on the treatment. With the disappointing trial results of the microbicides gel failing to prevent HIV transmission, more than ever it is necessary to recognize the importance of the effective preventative methods that are often not transcribed into consolidated, organized and serious actions. It is clear that successful HIV prevention programs need to be based on providing a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS education addressing sexuality, gender equality, sexual orientation, attitudes and values. We believe it is the only effective way in achieving behavioral change and adopting safer sexual practices which will lead to significant and rapid decrease in the number of people newly infected with HIV.

We also feel that young people need to be involved in every aspect from policy development to implementation to eradicate the spread of HIV/AIDs. The importance of such comprehensive sexual education as HIV prevention is even higher when we know that young people aged 15-24 account for 42% of all new HIV infections. There is clear evidence that young people are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic and that the AIDS response must be shaped to respond to these urging numbers of young people being at the spear tip of the epidemic.

We believe this is a goal than can and must be achieved by empowering, educating and investing in the youth.

We in IFMSA, as a youth-led non governmental organization, see ourselves as a advocates for young people, those newly infected with HIV daily and those millions living under the everyday threat of becoming infected, when we say that now is the time of making the new HIV infections get to zero. On this World AIDS Day, we are calling upon institutional organizations, governments and stakeholders to reaffirm that they must accord top priority to making investments in putting young people in the center of the fight against HIV/AIDS as it is for the well-being of our tomorrow.

Joško MIŠE
IFMSA Director on Reproductive Health including AIDS 2011/2012

About IFMSA:
For over 60 years, the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) has striven to foster a more caring future generation of physicians. Our Federation represents over 1.2 million medical students from 106 national member organizations from 99 countries across the globe. The IFMSA is an active network of young people engaged in their communities in order to contribute to achieving global health. Enjoying official relations with the WHO since 1969, IFMSA is recognized as the international voice of medical students. We organize 11,000 medical student exchanges a year and a wealth of student-led projects which fall into four main fields of interest: medical education, public health, human rights and peace, and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDs.

4-day-experience in the 36th General Conference of UNESCO…

Now that I’m back home sitting on my desk and far from the UNESCO world,I can just tell you that the last days in the “big house” were an amazing experience!

For one day and a hafl(26th and 27th),Discussions at the forum were focused on “How does UNESCO contribute to building a culture of peace and to sustainable development”. It provided an opportunity to explore bold and innovative ideas and ways of promoting peace and prosperity in a globalized world, through UNESCO’s fields of competence. Keynote addresses were made day by  Pal Schmitt, President of the Republic of Hungary,  Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Republic of Gabon,  Alassane Ouattara, President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister of Grenada,  Pascal Irenée Koupaki, Prime Minister of the Republic of Benin. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia and other special and important participants.

On the 28th morning and just before heading to the airport,I assisted to the presentation of the Youth Forum draft by the 2 youth delegates.A special thank was made by the representative of Indonesia followed by a big applause from the member states.

During evening social events,me and Roopa were socializing with the delegates and gathering the contacts of the National Commissions.We even talked about the March Meeting2012 to the representatives of Ghana who promised to arrange a meeting with the Minister of Education on Monday.

Most of the UNESCO offices in the countries belong to the Ministry of Education and they seem open to youth participation.For instance,encouranging the youth particpation in the National Commissions was one of the most recurrent recommendations of the Youth Forum and the General Conference.

I also had the chance to meet many interesting UNESCO staff: Mme Sonia Bahri,the chief of Science Policy & Capacity Building division,Mme Monthy,training officer at the Training & Career  Development Section who enlighted me about the internship in UNESCO and others that helped me a lot in my work.And what’s better than a dinner in a chic French restaurant with my predecessor Maxime Moulin (LO to UNESCO 2009-2010)!!!

I feel really sad that I had to leave before the end of the General Conference.Every day spent in UNESCO headquarter offers new opportunities for IFMSA.

This is the end of my first and not last adventure in Paris.I can proudly say that IFMSA participation was a real success and that we met all our expectations .

This is just the beginning of a long partnership story between IFMSA and UNESCO…

UNESCO General Conference-36th Session in Paris, France

Today marked the opening session of the UNESCO General Conference 36th Session in Paris, France. Live from the UNESCO headquarter. Lamia Jouini, LO to UNESCO and Roopa Dhatt, Vice President for External Affaires share their first day of conference wandering from booth to booth, building to building and even to event.

Lamia and I began our day in a hurried rush, as we went to get our official badges to enter the world of national delegations, NGOs, and various partners. UNESCO has a different flavor that many of the other UN agencies as it embraces culture and diversity to its true meaning. From the room filled with people adoring their national costumes to our agenda filled with culture heritage events, we could feel that we were in an UNESCO assembly–an organization dedicated to education, science, and culture.

For Lamia the opening day was “From the Youth Forum to the General Conference, just older delegates, fancier attire or “costumes,” more careful wording and diplomacy, but the same excitement and enthusiasm as our IFMSA delegates.”

We spent the day among some familiar youth delegates and many new faces. The events were primarily routine events with the opening session, establishment of the credentials committee, adoption of the agenda and the chairs, very similar to our GAs.

In the evening we attended an evening reception to honor the inauguration of the permanent exhibition OPEN UNESCO. This expo on OPEN UNESCO is about : “Enhancing awareness of UNESCO’s role, its activities throughout the world, the work conducted by its staff on a daily basis and its specificities within the United Nations system are the goals of this exhibition.

Open UNESCO is staged in an original, entertaining and appealing way, based on seven “island” stands, each focusing on a theme:
1. UNESCO: an idea in action;
2. crisis preparedness and response;
3. knowledge sharing;
4. cultural diversity;
5. one planet, one ocean;
6. human rights;
7. and peace and dialogue.

Visitors are invited – within the seven areas, adorned with symbolic objects – to listen to the stories of the Organization’s staff, represented by a flamboyant character, to watch a large animated fresco or to sit behind a console and select videos, pictures, interviews, sound recordings and multimedia publications.

In addition, touch-screen planispheres enable visitors to discover world heritage, the intangible heritage, items on the Memory of the World Register, endangered languages and biosphere reserves.”

We concluded the day with a very unique experience–the Mongolia Gala.

During this event dance, song, and music from the folk and contemporary repertories of Mongolia were represented throughout the show. “The Mongolian traditional art of khöömei and traditional morin khuur music, inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, were on the programme. Khöömei is a form of throat singing from western Mongolia, in the Altai mountains. The singer imitates nature by simultaneously producing two sounds: a continual hum and a superimposed melody of harmonics. Morin khuur (fiddle with a horse’s head), a two-stringed fiddle whose design is closely linked to horse worship, occupies a prime spot in Mongolian nomadic culture. It is most often played solo, but can also accompany dances, long songs (urtiin duu), myth recitals, ceremonies and day-to-day tasks linked to horses. Even now, the morin khuur repertoire still features airs (tatlaga) specifically aimed at taming animals. The simultaneous presence of a fundamental note and harmonics has always made it difficult to transcribe into classic notation, and explains why morin khuur is passed on orally from master to apprentice through generations.”