Peter Lamptey - Family Health International

Peter Lamptey of Family Health International talks to a half filled room at UCLA School of Public Health. In attendance are educators and students...and me. Again, I have found myself in a room where I've wondered yet again, what is the significance of me being in this room?

The invite was last minute and unexpected. A Ghanian, he speaks with the lilting West African accent that is always enjoyable to hear. He addresses an unknown woman asking him a question as sister reminding me of my Ghanian clients of years gone by who offered this explanation, when they called me their sister as well. "In Ghana," they explained, "all strangers are considered family and so one addresses strangers as brother or sister most commonly." When I went to introduce myself to Peter, we both tripped over each other's words in our haste and excitement to share that the world would be a much better place, if everyone considered strangers family.

It seems appropriate that an organization started in 1971 calls itself Family Health International, as the concept that we are all connected would have made sense to this man. He serves as President of Public Health Programs and driector of AIDSTAR Project fighting the HIV/AIDS issues worldwide.

He points out the facts. He shares the hopes. He shows a confusing map of how many government organizations have their hand in deciding how best to care for HIV/AIDS. Most intriguingly, there's little flexibility for some goverments as to how to implement the aid they receive. A country's entire Ministry of Health's budget might be equal to the aid they receive for HIV/AIDS, when only 2% of the country may be affected. Additionally there's an offset factor, funds can and may be funneled to other programs where the prevalence is higher. The numbers are staggering and he introduces a new term for me "HIV/AIDS mortgage", which is the cost of care over the lifetime of a person stands at 200-300.00 per year, per person. The estimated costs associated with fighting aids 75Billion. We've been fighting this disease since 1986. There are 2.7million new cases of HIV/AIDS reported and a cursory Google search shows 32.9M worldwide, at the end of 2007.

He shares hope, HIV/AIDS is considered a chronic disease now. Additionally, most healthcare issues have contributing factors, so if we can address the basic determinants of what assists disease in spreading, we might be better served to fight the disease better. He sites tobacco use as on such determinant.

Global health and HIV/AIDS are of growing concern and there's been a significant increase since 2000. Former President Clinton and President Obama both created health initiatives to eradicate the disease.

(Onna Young, All Rights Reserved, October 29, 2010)