Ideas worth spreading

Playlist

11 ideas for ending HIV/AIDS

These powerful talks offer ideas for rethinking—and hopefully stopping—the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Boghuma Kabisen Titanji

Ethical riddles in HIV research

A woman in sub-Saharan Africa is part of a cutting-edge HIV clinical trial -- but she can't afford a bus ticket to her health clinic, let alone the life-saving antiretrovirals she'll need. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji asks an important question: How can researchers looking for a cure make sure they're not taking advantage of the people most affected by the pandemic?

Flip your thinking on AIDS in Africa

Emily Oster re-examines the stats on AIDS in Africa from an economic perspective and reaches a stunning conclusion: Everything we know about the spread of HIV on the continent is wrong.

Shereen El Feki

HIV -- how to fight an epidemic of bad laws

There is an epidemic of HIV, and with it an epidemic of bad laws -- laws that effectively criminalize being HIV positive. At the TEDxSummit in Doha, TED Fellow Shereen El Feki gives a forceful argument that these laws, based in stigma, are actually helping the disease spread.

Mitchell Besser

Mothers helping mothers fight HIV

In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV infections are more prevalent and doctors scarcer than anywhere else in the world. With a lack of medical professionals, Mitchell Besser enlisted the help of his patients to create mothers2mothers -- an extraordinary network of HIV-positive women whose support for each other is changing and saving lives.

Patience Mthunzi

Could we cure HIV with lasers?

Swallowing pills to get medication is a quick, painless and often not entirely effective way of treating disease. A potentially better way? Lasers. In this passionate talk, TED Fellow Patience Mthunzi explains her idea to use lasers to deliver drugs directly to cells infected with HIV. It's early days yet, but could a cure be on the horizon?

Elizabeth Pisani

Sex, drugs and HIV -- let's get rational

Armed with bracing logic, wit and her "public-health nerd" glasses, Elizabeth Pisani reveals the myriad of inconsistencies in today's political systems that prevent our dollars from effectively fighting the spread of HIV. Her research with at-risk populations -- from junkies in prison to sex workers on the street in Cambodia -- demonstrates the sometimes counter-intuitive measures that could stall the spread of this devastating disease.

Insights on HIV, in stunning data visuals

Hans Rosling unveils data visuals that untangle the complex risk factors of one of the world's deadliest (and most misunderstood) diseases: HIV. By following the data, he suggests a surprising key to ending the epidemic.

HIV and flu -- the vaccine strategy

Seth Berkley explains how smart advances in vaccine design, production and distribution are bringing us closer than ever to eliminating a host of global threats -- from AIDS to malaria to flu pandemics.

Kristen Ashburn

The face of AIDS in Africa

In this moving talk, documentary photographer Kristen Ashburn shares unforgettable images of the human impact of AIDS in Africa.

Selling condoms in the Congo

HIV is a serious problem in the DR Congo, and aid agencies have flooded the country with free and cheap condoms. But few people are using them. Why? "Reformed marketer" Amy Lockwood offers a surprising answer that upends a traditional model of philanthropy. (Some NSFW images.)

Why I am an HIV/AIDS activist

For the last eight years, pop singer Annie Lennox has devoted the majority of her time to her SING campaign, raising awareness and money to combat HIV/AIDS. She shares the experiences that have inspired her, from working with Nelson Mandela to meeting a little African girl in a desperate situation.