Business and social media leaders are teaming up to tackle the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies.
Two Major Anti-AIDS Initiatives were Launched At World Economic Fourm (WEF), Davos to Eradicate New HIV Infection in Children Within Four Years.
The Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free was launched together with a Social Media Syndicate that is designed to reach billions of people around the world, getting them to join in action to take the number of HIV-infected births from 390,000 a year to zero within 48 months, making it the world’s largest social media movement of its kind. The Syndicate will evolve to focus on other UN Health Millennium Development Goals over the coming months.
Health experts agree that eliminating HIV infections among newborn babies is fully achievable by the end of 2015, but doing so will require a joint effort of the private and public sectors. Financial experts increasingly recognize the high return and cost-effectiveness of investing in disease prevention.
Apax Partners U.S. CEO John Megrue will chair the business group to coordinate work already being done by governments and other international donors. He says almost 400,000 babies are born with HIV each year.
The Social Media Syndicate will coordinate the most influential individual publishers to generate a mass social mobilization and be led by Randi Zuckerberg, founder of R to Z Media and former marketing director at Facebook. The syndicate expands on a model that was used successfully to help raise $200 million to fight malaria.
Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said: “The entire UN community stands fully behind the Business Leadership Council and their resolve to end new HIV infections among children by 2015. It is inspiring to see so many corporate leaders come together for a noble and yet entirely realistic goal.”
