From AIDS to global health

Stefano Vella | TEDxMünchenSalon

Dying from preventable or treatable diseases is unacceptable; we must make it a priority to provide everyone with access to care.

About the speaker

Stefano was a member of the expert panels who developed the 2013 and 2015 WHO HIV Guidelines. At the ISS Center for Global Health, where he currently works, he is engaged to promote, through research and action, universal access to treatment and care, with the vision of making the world a place where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy life. Stefano Vella is a clinician and a researcher. He is based in Rome, at the Italian National Institute of Health. His research focus has been mainly based on his infectious diseases and internal medicine backgrounds, addressing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, neglected tropical diseases, but also non communicable chronic diseases. In 1996 he participated to the drafting of the first HIV treatment guidelines introducing the concept of the combination cocktail which induced the dramatic reduction of HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality in western world, thanks to the introduction of the antiretroviral drugs “cocktail”. As President of the International AIDS Society, Stefano has been instrumental to bringing the AIDS Conference, for the first time, in Africa (Durban, 2000), a move which is considered to be the turning point of the battle for universal access to antiretroviral drugs. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx