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World Aids Day 2009
2009 marks the 21st anniversary of World AIDS Day. Since 1988, individuals and organisations from around the world have been coming together on December 1st to bring attention to the global AIDS pandemic. With over 33 million people living with HIV and AIDS, World AIDS Day provides an opportunity to highlight how much more still needs to be done.
RCSI Medical students from left Hussain Ibrahim, Catherine Dillane, Minister for Overseas Development Peter Power TD , Niamh Wheeler , Dr Seth Berkley, President of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)), Helen Zidon, and Erling Hawkes.
Irish Aid has chosen Universal Access to Prevention: Making it Work for Women as its theme for World AIDS Day. This is in line with the international theme of Universal Access and Human Rights. Universal Access is both a Human Right and a Public Health priority.
Approximately 60 percent of those infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, the region that Irish Aid prioritizes, are women. Ireland recognises that gender inequality and the subordination of women and girls is a key driver of the AIDS epidemic. Moreover, women are biologically and socio-economically more vulnerable to HIV and AIDS than men, while also bearing the greatest burden of care for those succumbing to the virus.
The 2009 Father Michael Kelly Lecture for World AIDS Day, hosted by the Minister of State for Overseas Development, Mr Peter Power T.D., and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) was held to mark World Aids Day in Ireland. The lecture, held in the College Hall, RCSI, St Stephen's Green, on Tuesday the 1st December at 12.30, was the fourth in the series which was established in 2006 by the Minister of State for Overseas Development in recognition of the outstanding work of Fr Michael Kelly in the field HIV and AIDS.
Minister Power was joined by guest speaker, Dr Seth Berkley, President of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a key player in the global search for a vaccine for AIDS. His lecture focused on Renewed Hope for AIDS Vaccines: Expanding Choices for Women. For Dr Seth Berkley?s presentation, please see the attached link:
RCSI Medical students from left Helen Zidon, Niamh Wheeler, Catherine Dillane, Erling Hawkes, Hussain Ibrahim.
Biographies
Prof. Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly was born in Tullamore in 1929. He was one of seven children. He and two of his siblings became Jesuit priests. He studied at University College Dublin and was awarded a B.A in Maths and Mathematical Physics in 1952, both with first class honours. He went on to receive a licentiate in philosophy in 1955. He moved to Zambia and has lived and worked there for 50 years, becoming a Zambian citizen.
Read full Prof. Michael Kelly biography »
Dr Seth Berkley
Seth Berkley is the president, CEO and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and a medical doctor specializing in infectious disease epidemiology and international health. Before launching IAVI, Seth played a key role in Uganda?s national HIV sero-survey and helped develop its National AIDSControl programs. He is currently an adjunct professor of medicine at Brown University and an adjunct professor of public health at Columbia University. The author of over 85 publications, Seth has written extensively on infectious disease and frequently serves as a media commentator on health technology
development, AIDS and global health issues.
Read full Dr Seth Berkley biography »
RCSI Medical students from left Hussain Ibrahim, Catherine Dillane, Niamh Wheeler, Helen Zidon and Erling Hawkes
