October 24, 2003
AIDS in Africa
“AIDS Treatment in Africa: Making It Work” is the title for the next Distinguished Faculty Lecture sponsored by the School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
Dr. Stephen Gloyd, who has worked in Africa, particularly Mozambique, on and off for more than two decades, will talk about the realities of providing treatment for AIDS in African nations and his own experiences there. He will speak at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Hogness Auditorium at the Health Sciences Center. The presentation is open to everyone.
“I’ll be focusing on how treatment with retroviral drugs has become more available as prices have dropped and more countries are making a commitment to treatment,” Gloyd said in a brief phone interview. “Sure, there are still a lot of problems, but the overall picture is much more positive than most people imagine.”
The related reductions in drug prices and willingness of governments to cover treatment are largely the result of efforts by a group of activists around the world to change a dismal picture of rampant disease and treatments too costly for widespread use. “What it took was a small group of passionate and committed people from around the world who just kept pushing and pushing until ideas about the feasilility of treatment began to change,” Gloyd said.
He is a professor of health services in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and director of the UW’s International Health Program. After graduating from Harvard, he earned his M.D. at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He had worked in Africa for several years when he returned to Harvard for a master’s degree in public health. He first came to the UW as a resident in family practice in 1973 and he has an adjunct appointment in the School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine.
In addition to his work in Africa, Gloyd has been involved in projects in Mexico, Central and South America, and with underserved rural and urban populations in the United States.
