An AIDS Number That’s Almost Too Big to Believe
When I talk to friends about global health, I often run into a strange paradox. The idea of saving one person’s life is profound and thrilling. But I’ve found that when you talk about saving millions of lives—it sounds almost meaningless. The higher the number, the harder it is to wrap your head around.
For example: If the world accelerates the fight against HIV/AIDS over the next 15 years, we can save 21 million lives.
How many people is 21 million? It is roughly the population of Australia. Or the number of people who live in Mumbai.
If you found out that a plague was going to wipe out the entire population of a city or country tomorrow, you would want the world to do everything possible to save their lives. Although preventing 21 million AIDS deaths is on a different time scale, morally there is no difference. It is just as pressing.
The chart above is drawn from a study in The Lancet by a group of economists who explored what’s possible if the world invests more in global health. The AIDS data, for example, assume that we expand HIV prevention and treatment. The report (which our foundation funded) confirms what global health advocates have long believed: Investing in health is an extremely effective way to break the poverty cycle. In fact it concludes that, with the right investments, the world can close the health gap between rich and poor countries. That would mean every country in the world will have child-mortality rates that are as low as the rate in America or the United Kingdom in 1980.
2015 is a key year for these issues. In September, the United Nations will come together to adopt goals about what should be done for the poor by 2030. It’s a follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals, which did an amazing job of getting the world to focus on how the poor are faring. I hope that by bringing both more attention and more funding to these issues, we can save millions of lives and make unprecedented progress by 2030.
If you want to learn more about the U.N.’s goals for 2030 and what you can do to help, I’d encourage you to become a Global Citizen.
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8 年Question: Is Hillary Clinton still working with The Gates Foundation to genitally mutilate (aka "circumcise") 26 million sub-Saharan Black Africans? How's that going?
HIV&AIDS Training Officer at UNMISS
8 年In one of my meeting with the club of people leaving with HIV/AIDS(PLHIV) one concern question was frequently being asked,when are the world body going to get the real treatment for this Virus? there concern is not any longer their life but the Love one, children under age,whom if he/she would have invest on them there would be more than one bill gate who can support in this tragedy, so I can agree with the conversation on saving only one than looking at the 21 million which is so big and fears even ten bill gate cant save them .so individual responds and support is more valuable than the Medicine itself.
Central and West African Representative of école Supérieure Robert de Sorbon professional university in France
9 年WHY I APPLAUD BILL GATES I really commend Bill Gates and his Foundation for sitting up and taking notice of this unprecedented threat staring the world in the face. HIV AIDS is beyond doubt a big killer. I too am fighting the battle from an angle that might interest you. I have published a book on HIV AIDS education which the Cameroon Ministry of Secondary Education has found to be so useful that it has adopted it as an official text book on the subject throughout the secondary school range. I sent a copy to the UNESCO headquaters in Paris and they were so happy with it that they listed the book on their website among their approved text books for HIV AIDS education. However, when the Cameroon Secondary Education Ministry selects a book for use in its schools, the onus is on the author to find funding and produce copies which it then sells. Does anyone out there know any funding sources they could recommend to me or anyone who could want to partner with me in producing copies of the book so that we sell and share profit? The book contains easy-to-read poems in English and French, which is why it is ideal for both English speaking and French speaking communities. It can also be used to fight HIV AIDS in any country of the world. You can view a sample of the book by following the link below: https://sumbola.com/books/499/say-no-to-aids-non-au-sida