Aid for AIDS

AID FOR AIDS International History

In 1996, the increased availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was having a profound impact on AIDS morbidity and mortality rates in the United States. In developing countries however, the situation was less optimistic. Though the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths continued to climb, access to lifesaving medication remained difficult and expensive. Even rarer were education for healthcare providers on the proper use of HIV medication and diagnostic mechanisms to monitor morbidity and to manage medication side-effects.

In early 1996, Jesús Aguais, a 27 year old AIDS activist from Venezuela, was working as a counselor at the AIDS clinic of St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in New York City. While working with his clients, Jesús encountered what he thought was needless waste. Due to the complexity of antiretroviral treatment and the side-effects commonly associated with the medication, patients will often need to change their medication. Changes in antiretroviral medication can occur very early in a prescription, leaving entire bottles of expensive pills unused. Jesús was becoming increasingly upset as he watched his patients discard perfectly good medication when it was no longer needed; he knew that this was wrong. Not knowing exactly what he would do with the unused medication, he began collecting it in a drawer in his office. As the medication continued to accumulate, Jesús urged friends and clients to pass on their leftover antiretrovirals whenever possible.

Later that year, an elderly woman traveling from Venezuela arrived at the AIDS clinic in New York City. While in Venezuela, she heard stories of a Venezuelan man working with people living with HIV and AIDS. This desperate woman had sold what few possessions she could, including her family’s cemetery plot, and purchased a plane ticket for New York. The woman met Jesús and recounted her story, pleading with him to help her family.

The elderly woman’s story was chilling, yet all too familiar to Jesús. Her son and daughter-in-law had recently been diagnosed as HIV positive, and one was in the hospital due to AIDS-related pneumonia. While there was nothing the clinic could do for these individuals abroad, Jesús remembered the medication that had been accumulating in his desk drawer. As if by fate, the medication in his drawer was the same antiretrovirals the elderly woman was seeking for her family; medication her family did not have access to in Venezuela.

Jesús thought about this woman, the simple act of saving perfectly good antiretroviral medication that would otherwise have been discarded, and of the thousands of others in similar situations. This one woman from Venezuela represented the many people impacted by the HIV and AIDS epidemic in developing countries. Her story spoke to the commonplace disparities in accessing adequate HIV and AIDS treatment and education to properly manage the epidemic.

In response, Jesús mobilized a group of dedicated and determined individuals, those who eventually developed the model of the organization we now call AID FOR AIDS International.

AID FOR AIDS International now provides life-saving medication in a well organized, public health approach and empowers people to be their own primary healthcare advocates. The organization has grown to not only include the largest medication recycling program in world, but also provides education, prevention, training, and advocacy programs targeting those living with HIV and AIDS in developing countries. AID FOR AIDS International remains a vital service for many living with HIV and AIDS, their families, their caregivers, and the community at large. The organizations growth both internally and externally serves as a testament to its efficacy and impact on public health service in the HIV and AIDS epidemic.