The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is a global leader in the fight against pediatric HIV and AIDS. We’re working in 17 countries around the world to provide HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for children, women, and families—with a mission to eliminate pediatric AIDS.
Elizabeth's Story:The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation was born from the most powerful force of all: a mother’s love for her children. Elizabeth Glaser contracted HIV in a blood transfusion in 1981 while giving birth to her daughter, Ariel. She and her husband, Paul, later learned that Elizabeth had unknowingly passed the virus on to Ariel through breast milk and that their son, Jake, had contracted the virus in utero.
In the course of trying to treat Ariel, the Glasers discovered that drug companies and health agencies had no idea that pediatric HIV was prevalent. The only drugs on the market were for adults — nothing had been tested or approved for children.
Ariel lost her battle with AIDS in 1988. Fearing that Jake’s life was also in danger, Elizabeth rose to action. She approached her close friends, Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis, for help in creating a foundation that would raise money for pediatric HIV and AIDS research.
The Pediatric AIDS Foundation had one critical mission: to bring hope to children with HIV and AIDS. Elizabeth made her first trip to Washington in 1988, when she met with President and Mrs. Reagan, representatives at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and members of Congress. In 1989, the Foundation held its first fundraiser and awarded its first grant for research on the immune dysfunctions in children living with HIV. Dozens more Washington trips and research grants followed.
Elizabeth lost her own battle with AIDS in 1994, and to honor her legacy, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation was renamed The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
The Foundation Today:
With a global staff of nearly 1,300 – more than 90 percent of whom are in the field – the Foundation has become the leading global nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs. And today, because of the highly successful work of the Foundation and its partners, pediatric AIDS has been virtually eliminated in the United States.
We’ve also made remarkable strides throughout the world: more than half of HIV-positive pregnant women in low and middle-income countries now receive medicines to help prevent transmission of HIV to their babies — triple the percentage from just three years earlier. One in four of those women receive their medicines through Foundation supported programs.
Yet despite our progress, nearly 1,200 children are still infected with HIV every day because their mothers don’t have access to the medicines they need to prevent transmission of the virus. There is no cure for HIV infection. Early infant diagnosis is critical, however. When ART is administered as early as possible in the course of infection, it can help children living with HIV lead longer, healthier lives. Taken every day, these medicines can drastically reduce the concentration of HIV in the bloodstream and increase levels of CD4 cells, thereby slowing the progression of the disease.
Sadly, most children still do not have access to ART, and about 50 percent of HIV-positive children will die before their second birthday in the absence of treatment (UNAIDS, Towards Universal Access 2010). We can — and must — change this.
Before the Foundation’s inception, children living with HIV and AIDS had no voice. Today, thanks to Elizabeth’s vision and the support of generous donors and partners, we are able to improve the lives of millions of children around the world every year.
Get Involved:
Donate to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Other ways to get involved.
Find One Way Every Day on Facebook.
Help me spread the word about One Way Every Day. LIKE me on Facebook!
Source: http://www.pedaids.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment