Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitkans Seek Results in Fight to Save Lives

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

Since its beginning in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has saved an estimated 17 million lives.

Sitka RESULTS would like to see those successes continue.

A field team of WHO and Global Fund Lao government staff, including Sitkan Nancy Knapp, fourth from left, pose for a photo in 2013 in Laos. The group was performing a program evaluation and making recommendations for improvements of the TB and HIV programs in the Provinces and Districts, checking records, interviewing patients, lab technicians, medical care providers. (Photo provided)

“The numbers are awesome,” said Michele Friedman, a longtime member of the group.

RESULTS is hosting a program at the Loft 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday in observance of World AIDS Day.

Nancy Knapp will share stories and photos about her work with Global Fund in Laos from February 2010 through April this year.

The 30-minute documentary “The Lazarus Effect” will be shown. It’s about the life-saving effect of anti-retroviral medicine, told through the stories of HIV-positive people in Zambia.

 Thai spring rolls and soup will be served at the Sunday event.

The event is free, but it’s also a fundraiser at which RESULTS will outline its initiatives for the year. Laptops will be set up to enable participants to donate through a “virtual Thanksgiving fundraiser.”

RESULTS is a grass-roots advocacy group focused on ending of poverty domestically and internationally.

The main initiative of the coming year is advocating for the U.S. to replenish its contribution to the Global Fund. With the end of the current funding cycle of the Global Fund, RESULTS will be pushing for the U.S. to contribute one-third of the money needed for the Global Fund to continue its work. Friedman said Congress will be taking up that issue at the start of the next session, and Sitka RESULTS will be working to make sure lawmakers have the information they need to make the right decision to replenish the fund.

“The Global Fund hasn’t set a number of what they need, but the goal we’re shooting for is whatever they get is that the U.S. gives a third,” Friedman said. “We’ve been giving less than a third.”

Knapp, whose position in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic was supported by the Global Fund, said the payoff of the Global Fund is huge.

The Global Fund has committed $19.2 billion in all to 140 countries to support large-scale prevention, treatment and care programs against AIDS, TB and malaria. And as a result 17 million lives have been saved, Knapp said.

The Global Fund has paid for anti-retroviral therapy for 8.1 million HIV patients and TB testing and treatment for 13.2 million people. It has purchased 548 million insecticide-treated bed nets to protect families from malaria, and has worked to expand national coverage of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Knapp said.

Friedman said that since the Global Fund started, the number of people dying of AIDS, TB and malaria has declined by 40 percent, 30 percent and 60 percent, respectively. She acknowledged that the Global Fund is one of many organizations fighting the diseases.

“There’s not a lot of organizations focusing on TB – RESULTS really focuses on that,” she said. 

She said there have been many successes in the treatment of TB, but RESULTS would like to see even more.

“If people don’t get (adequate) treatment they may get resistant strains of TB, and it becomes more expensive to treat,” Friedman said.

She also would like to raise awareness about the widespread presence of TB around the world, and the need to continue to stay on top of the situation when it comes to treatment.

 “A lot of people think TB has gone away, that it’s a thing of the past,” she said. “But it’s still prevalent around the world, especially in poverty-stricken areas. But if there’s a positive thing, the Global Fund is going great work. It’s a great use of our tax money to go toward reducing the spread of TB so (those in poverty-stricken areas) can continue to work, feed their families ...”

“We do have AIDS and TB in Alaska,” Knapp said. “It’s something to be concerned about. If you’re not treating (TB) adequately, and catching it early and start treating it, it can spread among family members and friends.”

Sitka RESULTS is hoping to raise $5,000 at the Sunday event. The national organization has been around since the 1980s, and in Sitka since 1991.

    “We advocate for the poor who have no voice – they’re not in D.C., advocating,” Friedman said.

Knapp noted there is another event planned to raise awareness about AIDS, in connection with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The event, actually scheduled for 7 p.m. Dec. 2, will feature a talk by Dr. Irbert L. Vega of Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital about HIV /AIDS in Alaska, and new treatment and prevention methods. The “Doc Talk” will be presented at the Hames Center, and is free and open to the public.