Dr. Christoph Benn is the Director of External Relations for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The world’s largest and most powerful global health financier, the Global Fund celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
At this important milestone, Dr. Benn reflects on working two decades ago as a doctor at Tanzania’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, a facility that had 100 beds to serve 100,000 people. In the wake of incredible progress made there—and across the globe—in the fight against HIV and AIDS, Dr. Benn shares his vision for sustaining lifesaving efforts in the years ahead. For the full interview, visit Alertnet.com.
What was most striking to you when you took your post at the hospital in Tanzania?
I arrived to save lives, save children, and that all happened. But what I didn’t expect to see was a new disease, which had just been reported in other areas of the world but was said not to have reached these rural areas.
When I arrived in 1988, I came with the first antibody tests for detecting HIV in Southern Tanzania. When I did anonymous tests among my patients, I realized that 10% of them were already infected. At the end of four years, 30% of my patients were infected. And the transmission of the disease from infected pregnant women to their babies was at more than 30%.
There was no treatment available anywhere. People were dying on a mass scale—AIDS became by far the leading cause of death. I remember coming to villages where there were so many orphans, they didn’t know what to do with them.
What changes have you seen there, particularly in the past 10 years?
It is quite simply amazing. If you went to the districts and communities anywhere in Tanzania, you’d find a treatment center supported by PEPFAR and the Global Fund where anyone who needs medication gets it.
When you go into villages, people are taking care of their families again, working in the fields, taking care of other patients and the elderly. People with HIV reach out to others in the community to let them know how to get treatment.
After a decade of enormous strides made against HIV and AIDS worldwide, what would you say to countries moving forward?
The global effort to fight HIV and AIDS worldwide has been a unique movement that made possible a never-before-seen solidarity between wealthy and poor communities—and among a broad spectrum of people who support the cause.
When have you ever seen such a diverse movement of people caring? Celebrities, politicians, the private sector, faith communities. There are many different motivations to do the right thing—for some it is an issue of justice or compassion. For others it is a humanitarian cause or a question of faith.
In the end, the only thing that matters is that we do care, that we do not again allow a situation where millions of people die unnecessarily from a treatable and preventable disease just because they happened to be born in a poor country.
We need to maintain the energy and passion that brought us to this point. We need to convince people it is a cause worth fighting for—and for wealthy countries, that it is a cause worth investing in.