[media-credit name=’SUNDEEP MALLADI/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]A University of Wisconsin alumnus said Wednesday a new health-care model could impact the dire AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Ernest Darkoh, the founder and chairman of Broadreach Healthcare — a company focusing on international health-care issues — spoke to an assembly of scholars Wednesday as part of the UW's Center for Global Health Spring Seminar Series.

Promoting a redesigned approach to the way health care is organized and administered in Africa, Darkoh shared his relevant experience in the medical field in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cynthia Haq, a UW professor and the director for the Center for Global Health, called Darkoh a "phenomenon and an inspiration."

"He has blended together the best ideas from medicine, public health and economics," Haq said. "This type of big-picture thinking and action-oriented results is extremely phenomenal."

According to Haq, Darkoh was slated to receive the UW-Madison Distinguished Alumni Award last year, but was too busy to collect it. He will officially receive the award today.

As a globally recognized expert in HIV/AIDS program management, Darkoh spoke from personal experience surrounding the "most invisible epidemic" yet.

Although the AIDS rates in Africa are still high, according to Darkoh, 75 percent of those infected with the disease in sub-Saharan Africa are not even aware of the infection.

"There is this presumption that everyone in these countries is aware of their health status," Darkoh said. "But people don't even know they're sick."

Darkoh's proposed model combats this issue by dramatically increasing testing rates among patients. In Botswana, the government tremendously increased testing rates by simply making the HIV test a routine part of any hospital visit.

The current health-care model for fighting AIDS, Darkoh said, is far too reactionary and should focus on prevention and early treatment where possible. He said there was no way to effectively decrease HIV-positive results when so many new cases are being discovered at a rapid rate.

"There is no point in keeping mopping the floors if we don't turn off the tap," Darkoh said.

Additionally, Darkoh said a new approach should utilize all sectors of society to solve the problem, place experts in their area of expertise and create support and monitoring mechanisms for the "well" people in a community.

Darkoh emphasized that physical space is not of extreme importance in the redesigned health-care plan. The important thing, he said, is the way that space is run.

"The core of a successful treatment program is not physical infrastructure," Darkoh said. "It is systems and processes which allow patients to take drugs on a prescribed and consistent basis."

UW political science professor Michael Schatzberg asserted the possibility of the new plan's failure in a different political atmosphere. Haq agreed that the new approach would need to be adapted for each individual situation rather than applied as a "blanket" approach.

Darkoh agreed that the new health-care approach had strengths and weaknesses on many fronts but emphasized the importance of working together to confront those weaknesses.

"We must have the courage to cross boundaries and join hands in the spirit of true jointly accountable partnerships," Darkoh said. "Every stakeholder down to the individual has a distinct, enforced and monitored role."