CONTACT: Sarah Freeman
April 2, 2007
202-994-8874
mcmsxf@gwumc.edu
GW Medical Center Professor Joins Hollywood Actress to Raise Awareness of HIV
Washington, DC— In an effort to raise awareness of HIV among those at risk in India, Amita Vyas, PhD, assistant professor in the department of Prevention and Community Health at the GW School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) joined Hollywood actress Ashley Judd and YouthAIDS/Population Services International (PSI) on a mission to Mumbai, India. With a population of more than one billion, it is estimated that at least 5.7 million people in India are infected with HIV, the world’s largest number of HIV infected persons.
The National Geographic Chanel filmed this Indian mission, which will air as an hour long special on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2007, in more than 170 countries and to more than 200 million households around the world. The documentary starring Ashley Judd and Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen focuses on the complex relationships between women’s rights and empowerment on HIV. Women and children are increasingly becoming vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and it estimated that 38 percent of infected persons in India are women. The male to female ratio of HIV infected people has shifted in recent years. In 2001 there were 55 HIV infected females to every 100 HIV infected males. Just four years later in 2005, it was reported there were 60 HIV infected females to every 100 HIV infected males. This indicates the increasing feminization of HIV/AIDS in India. “The empowerment of girls and women is an essential tool to preventing the HIV/AIDS emergency from exploding any further,” Ashley Judd told reporters in India.
The delegation spent one week in Mumbai, India’s financial capital and home to Bollywood, a Hindi language film industry in India. Dr. Vyas visited and spoke with commercial sex workers, in Kamthipura. She also spent time in Dharvi, the largest slum in Asia and she observed PSI/India’s HIV prevention programs such as street theater, help lines, and social marketing of condoms. Dr. Vyas spent time at voluntary counseling and testing centers for sex workers and their male clients. In Mumbai, approximately 5,000 sex workers reside, and an estimated 45 percent are HIV positive.
The mission was complimented with a series of high-level meetings and receptions with Mumbai’s corporate leaders and the entertainment industry, to develop creative partnerships in the prevention of HIV. “Public-private partnerships are the key to combating public health issues such as HIV in India. The Indian-American community has the power and potential to join forces in a meaningful way to build the capacity of NGOs in India who are saving lives,” said Dr. Vyas. “We need to be ‘smart’ donors and provide support for evidence-based programs in the public health sector of India. We have the ability, resources and most importantly the compassion and courage to make a difference.”
The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has consistently provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation’s capital; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu.
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