How the Teacher Spent His Summer Vacation

Bert Jacobs spends a lot of time learning to fight viruses with biological tools. But he also knows that education is a key tool to help prevent the spread of disease.

During the summer of 2004, Jacobs joined 20 student volunteers in Tanzania. Together, they presented HIV education programs in schools.

Approximately two-thirds of all people infected with HIV/AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania alone, about 1.5 million people live with HIV.

Jacobs presented a two-week orientation program for the student volunteers. The students came from ASU and the University of Arizona for the eight-week program. “Students for International Change” is the volunteer group sponsoring the program.

Jacobs teaches virology classes for science majors. But he also teaches a course on HIV/AIDS for non-science majors. The course was developed by a former ASU professor who had a family member infected with HIV.

Jacobs was asked to give a lecture, then two, then three.

“About eight years ago the professor took me out to lunch, plied me with wine, and said, ‘I’m retiring, will you take over the class?’” laughs Jacobs.

Jacobs brings in many guest speakers as part of the course, including physicians, HIV-infected patients, and others. He hopes to inspire his students the way his own professors inspired him in the past.

“I’ve had psychology students tell me, ‘This stuff is cool. I want to be a virologist!’ Just as important—or more so—I’ve had a lot of people tell me, ‘I want to go into HIV education,’” says Jacobs. “Probably the biggest effect we can have on HIV today is through education.”

Jacobs says that disease prevention is not just a job for biologists. Understanding cultural differences is imperative in developing outreach and education programs.

“In Africa, I spent a long time talking to volunteers about cultural differences. Those were some of the most productive discussions we had there,” he says.

“For example, the Masai have a polygamous culture. You can’t just tell them to be monogamous. Instead, the group tells them, ‘If you’re going to be polygamous, then use condoms with all your partners.’”

The ASU scientist says that coming home from Africa was almost as much of a culture shock as going.

“Tanzanian people were the friendliest people I’ve ever met in my life,” he says. “By the end of three weeks, I knew more people on the street to say hello to than I do from living in Tempe for seven or eight years. By the end of the month it took an hour to walk across the one-mile village. You were always stopping to talk with new friends.”—Diane Boudreau