Yale Conference to Address HIV/AIDS Inequalities at the Global and National Level

Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) will co-sponsor a conference featuring experts from the United States and abroad discussing critical issues in HIV/AIDS.

The conference, titled “Structural Inequality and HIV/AIDS at the Global and National Level” will take place tomorrow (April 3) from 12:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, 155 Temple St.

CIRA’s Law, Policy and Ethics Core and the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics are co-sponsors of the conference, which will look at critical issues in the risk for, transmission and treatment of, and response to HIV/AIDS. The conference features panels focused on three different dimensions of the global pandemic’s unequal distribution of burden: race and the disparities in care for people infected with HIV, human rights and stigma issues associated with HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact of the disease in poor nations.

Michael Merson, the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor and Dean of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale will deliver welcoming remarks. He will be followed by distinguished panelists such as Stephen Lewis, the United Nation’s special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Samuel A. Bozzette of the Rand Corporation and Judith Cornell of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

The following is a complete schedule of panelists and their topics:

12:45 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. Welcoming Remarks
Michael Merson (CIRA)
Jason Andrews (Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics)

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
“Global Resource Allocation: Mobilizing Resources to Fight HIV/AIDS”
In a context of global inequality, one approach to alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS in poor nations has been to develop funds that can provide capital investment to these countries necessary to scale-up their existing efforts to address HIV/AIDS and establish a foundation on which to sustain future programs. This panel will consider a number of questions raised by this approach to alleviating the impact of HIV/AIDS in poor nations.

* Stephen Lewis (United Nations)
“The Global Fund: Does it Have a Future?”
* John Stover (Futures Group)
“How National Governments Determine the Allocation of Funds for HIV/AIDS Programs”
* Stuart Flavell (Global Network of People Living with AIDS)
“AIDS: Challenging the Development Status Quo”
* Judith Cornell (International HIV/AIDS Alliance)
“The Role and Influence of Civil Society Organizations in Resource Allocation for HIV/AIDS”

Panel Chair: Michael Merson (CIRA)

2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. BREAK

2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
“Human Rights, Stigma, and HIV/AIDS”
It is frequently argued that AIDS is a human rights issue and that efforts to promote HIV prevention and treatment goals require the promotion of human rights. Complicating this goal is the tremendous stigma frequently faced by those living with HIV/AIDS or at risk for becoming infected. This panel will consider human rights and stigma issues associated with HIV/AIDS in the context of global and national inequality.

* Zita Lazzarini (University of Connecticut, Division of Medical Humanities, Health Law and Ethics)
“Using a Legal or Human Rights Framework as a Tool in the AIDS Epidemic”
* Joanne Csete (Human Rights Watch)
“Inequity Meets Injustice: Putting Human Rights on the AIDS Agenda and Vice Versa”
* Jon Willis (Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, Latrobe University)
“The Worst of all Possible Worlds: Gay Indigenous Australians Living with HIV”

Panel Chair: Robert Levine (CIRA)

4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. BREAK

4:15 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.
“Not Just a Global Issue: Race-Ethnic Disparities in HIV/AIDS Within the U.S.”
While there is considerable attention paid to global inequality in the distribution and impact of HIV/AIDS, within the United States, communities of color and the poor are more likely to be infected with HIV and less likely to receive care than whites and the well-to-do. This panel will consider some of the questions raised by persistent disparities in HIV/AIDS within the US.

* Cornelius Baker (Whitman Walker Clinic)
“Power Dynamics: Impact on the Response to the HIV Epidemic”
* Samuel Bozzette (RAND Corporation)
“Disparities in Care Across Diverse Populations in the United States: Insights from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS)”
* George Ayala (AIDS Project Los Angeles)
“Social Discrimination and Health: The Case of Latino Gay Men and HIV”
* Mindy Fullilove (Columbia University)
“Long-term Consequences of African American Dispossession”

Panel Chair: Harlon Dalton (CIRA)

5:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Closing Remarks
Stephen Lewis (United Nations)