Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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GlobeMed Hosts Benefit Dinner For Public Health

By Matt RadlerThe Daily Northwestern

The leader of one of the world’s largest public health organizations called attention to the treatable illnesses that ravage the developing world Friday night at a benefit dinner hosted by the Global Medical Relief Program.

Nils Daulaire, president and chief executive officer of the Global Health Council, spoke to about 120 donors and GlobeMed activists at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1818 Maple Avenue.

“We say, ‘If only we had a vaccine for AIDS.’ Well, we have a vaccine for measles,” Daulaire said. “Yet one-third of the world’s children are not immunized, and nearly half a million children die each year. This is where we have failed.”

GlobeMed is a student group that works to provide medical supplies and promote health care in the developing world. The group’s founding chapter is based at Northwestern.

Daulaire was the keynote speaker at the $100-a-plate dinner to raise money for GlobeMed’s overseas public health programs and the organization’s expansion in the U.S.

He devoted most of his speech to the deteriorating health situation in third-world countries, where he said life expectancy for the poorest 20 percent of the world’s population is on the decline.

Diseases such as pneumonia kill more people than AIDS, he said. Diarrhea alone kills two million children a year, which is down from four million due to widespread use of oral rehydration solution.

“The total cost for a course of treatment for pneumonia was 27 cents,” Daulaire said. “It’s not that complicated.”

Illustrating each disease with a slideshow, Daulaire focused on women’s vulnerability to childbirth infections and sexually transmitted diseases in Africa and South Asia.

“The sad fact is that in some of these parts of the world, women don’t matter very much,” he said. “Women have last call on food, last call on education and last call on health care.”

The situation is even more dire when it comes to women and AIDS. Daulaire said that in the course of his studies in Kenya, researchers found that one-third of girls are infected with HIV by the age of 19.

With Africa’s massive rates of HIV infection, Daulaire said the future hinges less on medication and more on social change.

“True, they’ve gotten the cost of anti-retroviral treatment down to $130, but when your annual income is $300, it’s still unreachable,” Daulaire said. “We will not be able to treat our way out of AIDS. We must focus on the young. They are the center of the culture and sexual behavior.”

The benefit was GlobeMed’s second fundraising dinner. The first, held in 2005, raised about $8,000, according to Victor Roy, president of GlobeMed’s national organization and a Weinberg senior. He said they hoped to raise $7,000 at Friday’s benefit.

“It’s not just about donations,” Roy said. “It’s about personal mobilization.”

Amelia Chen, GlobeMed’s assistant director of fundraising and development, said events like the benefit are essential for GlobeMed to impact public health.

“Northwestern has a lot of resources and what I’m looking at right now is expanding participation, getting the attention of students and professors and CEOs,” the Weinberg freshman said. “Having Daulaire here is a big deal.”

Daulaire ended his speech with a discussion of the unequal distribution of health research investment. In the U.S., investors spend less on children’s respiratory illnesses than on Parkinson’s Disease, he said, even though respiratory illnesses impact a far larger share of the world’s population.

“We’re seeing improvement, but we have a very long way to go if we’re going to put our money where our ethics are,” he said.

Reach Matt Radler at [email protected].

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GlobeMed Hosts Benefit Dinner For Public Health