Beckman Coulter Life Sciences has launched an international HIV\/AIDS award at the 2016 conference for the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) recently held in Cape Town, South Africa (December 3 to 8).
The annual award is part of the company\u2019s global CARES Initiative dedicated to helping people who are living with HIV\/AIDS. Beckman Coulter\u2019s CARES award is designed to recognize individuals who have shown \u2018care, dedication and commitment\u2019 in their communities as part of the fight against HIV\/AIDS. The winner will receive a $5,000 (\u20ac4,700) donation in their name to one of the selected causes, with the three individual stories that receive the most nominations publicized around the world on the CARES Initiative website.
Potential winners can be nurses, healthcare workers, national coordinators, lab scientists and even clinicians; or lay people who are active in community outreach work. This could include a social worker providing AIDS counselling.
CARES supports the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target to ensure that by the year 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know their status, 90% of those with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
It focuses on providing innovative solutions for the monitoring of HIV and AIDS treatment. CARES was inspired by the work of Professor Debbie Glencross, a South African laboratory pathologist, who found a different and less expensive way to measure a patient\u2019s CD4 count.
While this is intended as an international award, in its first year, the award will focus on recognizing the dedication of people in Africa, one of the areas in the world most affected by HIV\/AIDS. The 2017 award will be launched at the annual meeting of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), a pan-African professional body aiming to improve laboratory services. <\/p>\n
Recognition for unsung heroes <\/strong> Potential Nominees<\/strong> Beckman Coulter Life Sciences has launched an international HIV\/AIDS award at the 2016 conference for the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) recently held in Cape Town, South Africa (December 3 to 8).The annual award is part of the company\u2019s global CARES Initiative dedicated to helping people who are living with HIV\/AIDS. Beckman Coulter\u2019s CARES […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Samuel Boova, Beckman Coulter\u2019s Director Alliance Development, High Burden HIV Markets, said: \u201cThe award is to give a platform to the work and stories of those we see as the unsung heroes of individual communities. These are people who have shown individual dedication, commitment and courage or who have made a difference in the battle against HIV\/AIDS.
\u201cHowever, it is not just the final winner we want to publicaly recognize. We hope the award will encourage communities to learn about and honour the work of every nominee, so that more people will come forward to help and support those living with HIV\/AIDS.\u201d
Nominations must first be made via the CARES website. Once a name has been nominated, the local community will be given the opportunity to vote in support. People with the greatest number of votes will be put forward for the final assessment panel. Rules of entry and full details are available in full from http:\/\/www.beckman.com\/cares<\/link>.
Mr Boova gave the following examples of ordinary people who support their local communities in the field of HIV\/AIDS. \u201cWe are looking for dedicated and committed individuals like these who work in the community helping others to live with, and manage, the disease,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
The first example is how a young HIV positive woman in Uganda was inspired and empowered by a community charity, PINA (People In Need Agency), to rebuild her life and become an advocate herself for young people living with HIV. This was the objective of PINA when it was first set up by a local case worker \u2013 to work with young people, helping them overcome the stigma of living with HIV and rebuild their self-esteem.
Mr Boova also pointed out that there are many women in rural Africa who walk miles every day to see patients to ensure they are compliant with their medications. Medication alone does not help without the commitment of these women \u2013 and they have to walk many miles between patients each day and every day, whatever the conditions.www.beckman.com\/cares<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"