More Seattle-Area Businesses Need to Join Global Fight Against HIV/AIDS, Opinion Piece Says

"If Seattle is such a global city, ... why isn't it addressing a global problem like AIDS?" Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur asks in a Times opinion piece. According to Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS Executive Director Trevor Neilson, only two of GBC's 205 member companies -- Microsoft and Getty Images -- are based in the Northwest, Brodeur writes. Many companies are "loathe to attach themselves" to fighting HIV/AIDS because the disease is a "result of unprotected sex and [injection] drug use," according to Brodeur. In addition, she says there is an attitude among businesses in the region that Microsoft founder Bill Gates "pretty much cover[s]" the Northwest's contribution to fighting the pandemic. However, "the numbers clearly demand" that companies, especially those doing business in countries such as China, need to focus on HIV/AIDS because if the number of HIV-positive people and AIDS-related deaths "continue to climb, it won't matter if our profits do," Brodeur concludes (Brodeur, Seattle Times, 10/16).

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