AMFAR

Why Hollywood is the key in the fight against HIV/AIDS

Sharon Stone at an
amfAR party in
Cannes (2008)Text by Francesca Lombardo

With an annual turnover of around €17m, a dedicated staff of full-time employees, a raft of A-list celebrity ambassadors – Sharon Stone has supported it for the past 13 years – and a dedicated committee of some of the most distinguished scientists in the world, AmfAR, the NYC-based AIDS charity, has gone to great lengths in the battle against the disease.

Despite all this, its name brings to mind glitzy images of star-studded parties held during the most prestigious film festivals around the world, VIPS strolling and posing on red carpets and guest lists full of the international movers and shakers.

Asian women living with HIVWe spoke to Bill Melamed, vice-president of fundraising at AmfAR, to find out what really lies behind the glamour of such a glitzy public face.

Bill, don’t you think all the glamour associated with amfAR’s events could divert people’s attention away from the organisation’s real objectives?
AmfAR events are exclusive and very high profile, true, but at the party at the last Cannes film festival we hit a fundraising record of $10m (€6.4m); that is what we care about. The fact that the glamour is what drives people’s attention is a catch-22, but a good one, because we use the celebrity factor for our ends, which is a humanitarian end.

An amfAR doctor with a
patientWhen did this partnership with Hollywood celebrities start?
From the very beginning, in 1985. amfAR was co-founded by Elizabeth Taylor. She was the first one to talk openly about the disease. She exposed for the first time the issue of gay relationships, and the urgency of being open about HIV/AIDS.

What are the main objectives of amfAR?
Fundraising, research, education and prevention.

How do you operate?
We have a committee of international scientists, who identify the most important research topics to fund, then we ask scientists from the global scientific community to send us proposals. We offer grants on the basis of the priorities set by our committee.

Bill Melamed (left)
with designer
Kenneth Cole at an
amfAR event in
New YorkWhat does your organisation do that governments don’t?
The US government has spent millions of dollars on research as well as developing drugs to distribute around Africa, but responsibility cannot just fall to the government. It is ours, indeed everyone’s responsibility to raise funds and generate awareness. We work with the government, not against them. However, governments can be too cautious when talking about drug-related issues, such as encouraging drug users to always use new needles, or discussing safer sex – that is when we step in.

Thanks to our research, we also flag up research topics the government should tackle and identify which countries they should focus on.

What are amfAR’s latest achievements?
We have generated awareness about long-overlooked Asia, where more than eight million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, with 180,000 of them being children. Over the past five years we have created the Treat Asia project, a network of clinics, hospitals and research institutions to ensure the safe and effective delivery of HIV/AIDS treatments across Asia and the Pacific. The project also plays a big part in education, training, and clinical research.

Right: doctors from amfAR’s Treat Asia project
Left: Diane Kruger and Gael García

How much progress has been made with treatments?
Until 1996, when we hadn’t found protease inhibitors, people where dying very quickly. Now we have life-extending drugs, and others, which can stop the disease from passing from mother to child. A lot has been done, but there is still no cure, and scientists are not very hopeful to find one in the near future. The best approach is still prevention.

What is the main focus of amfAR’s research now?
We are trying to produce a gel that can protect the sexual parts from being infected when coming into contact with the virus, but unfortunately the creation of this product is still some way off.

Please donate at www.amfAR.org

AMFAR

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