Creating Global Health Partnerships for AIDS: A Conversation with Dr. Mark Dybul
By Natalie Kim
On March 19, 2019, Dr. Mark Dybul spoke to Conversations in Global Health, a one credit pilot course where students have the opportunity to learn from and speak with experts in the field of global health. The conversation opened with Dr. Dybul discussing his academic background at Georgetown University where he studied theology, philosophy, and poetry. However, the trajectory of his professional life radically changed when he read an article that discussed the devastation of the AIDS epidemic on the African continent. He decided to pursue a career in medicine as a way to work towards combating the high death count and hopelessness that the disease induced. He then went on to be a leading voice at the intersection of health and development, serving as the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and as the head of PEPFAR.
Dr. Dybul’s work with PEPFAR has fundamentally changed conceptions of global health and helped revive communities that were suffering from a disease that was once a death sentence. Recent estimates place the number of lives saved so far at 17 million. However, there are still 1.8 million people worldwide who were infected with HIV in 2017. Infections are increasing in young populations, and people living with HIV remain vulnerable to other life-threatening diseases such as tuberculosis. AIDS treatment is currently in a precarious position, especially pertaining to the increasing number of cases in young people whose primary concerns do not necessarily include health. Dr. Dybul said, “to engage young people means creating programs that engage them,” rather than taking an approach that makes behavioral assumptions. Going forward, the path to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 should be a major part of the development agenda that continues to foster partnerships through accountability.
Adequate focus should also be placed on particularly vulnerable populations such as young women, sex workers, members of the LGBTQ+ community, prisoners, migrant populations, and people who inject drugs. Investment in AIDS should also provide tailored intervention that focuses on health and education as potential to create substantive and lasting change. This investment should not be measured through quantity of money, but rather through ability to create strong partnerships and results. Successful collaboration will be characterized by holding partner nations accountable instead of a paternalistic model where one party is implicitly framed as inferior. These relationships must be grounded in respect and listening, and Dr. Dybul highlighted the importance of this saying, “To end an infectious disease we actually have to become better human beings, to treat each other with the dignity and respect we deserve.”
Natalie Kim (SFS ‘21) is an undergraduate majoring in Science, Technology, and International Affairs with a concentration in global health.
This blog was written by a student in Georgetown’s Conversations in Global Health course, which brings leaders in global health to Georgetown to discuss their careers and work.