Thursday, October 4, 2007

IDEAS Boston -- Bisola Ojikutu

Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, who has dedicated her career to rectifying disparities in health care access for HIV-infected patients domestically and abroad, is Director of South Africa HIV/AIDS Programs, Harvard Medical School. In this position, Ojikutu is leading initiatives to increase access to treatment for women and children and integrate HIV management into primary health systems. She has also developed specialization in outcomes research and health worker training. She previously worked in conjunction with the South African government to develop their antiretroviral roll-out plan to treat people living in that country with HIV. In addition, she has provided technical support to multiple organizations, including the World Health Organization.

Ojikutu recounts what it was like to grow up on the South Side of Chicago. She noticed the racial and economic disparities that plague inner cities, she says. Once she became doctor, she says, she started to apply her ideas about social justice to her work. Because she wanted to immerse herself in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, she says, in 2003 she moved to South Africa, the epicenter of the problem. And, she says, she was outraged. Eighty percent of South Africans go to public hospitals, and 20 percent to private ones. South Africa is a well-off country -- yet some 810,000 South Africans with HIV/AIDs don't have access to treatment. "You have the haves and the have-nothings, and this is the legacy of apartheid," Ojikutu says.

Domestically, Ojikutu maintains clinical practice at Massachusetts General Hospital, and she is an advocate for the health needs of minority women. She says America needs a wakeup call: We have 40,000 new HIV cases per year. What are the factors driving the epidemic here? She doesn't know for sure, but she thinks they include: a lack of openness regarding sexual diversity; mistrust of government and health authorities; stigma and denialism about HIV; people are tired of worrying about HIV, and aren't being as careful as they should; and incarceration, maybe. Socioeconomic causes are also crucial: Poverty means a delay in access to health care.

America has a "detachment" problem, concludes Ojikutu. Most of us look at pictures of people dying of HIV (black females, men behind bars, intravenous drug users, gays) and we don't care. She asks us to be passionate and committed.

Lots of applause.

Ashbrook: "We're glad we understand and share this useful anger."

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 03:44 PM

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