AIDS IN AFRICA (СПИД в Африке)

Iulia PariniucStoneleigh-Burnham SchoolPosted on 01 INAFRICA AIDS is becoming one ofthe most important problems of the modern world. According to AIDSEpidemic Update 2000 and the World Health Organization WHO , the currentnumber of people living with HIV or AIDS is 36.1 million, more than 50 higherthan predicted in 1991. And this number is increasing every day, hour andminute. The greatest number of inhabitants sick with AIDS or HIV live inAfrica.Over17 million Africans have already died of AIDS-three times thenumber of AIDS deaths in the rest of the world, orphaning 10 million or moreAfrican children.

The AIDS situation in Africa is catastrophic and sub- SaharanAfrica continues to head the list as the world s most affected region, saidPeter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS. According to his report, estimated3.8 million people became infected with HIV in sub Saharan Africa during theyear, bringing the total number of people living with HIV AIDS in the region to25.3 million, or almost a million more than in 1999. The reason of such great spread of the diseaseis inadequate level of living and absence of needed education. According toWHO, more than 50 of African population does not live a safe sexual life, andthe increase of number of drugs deteriorate the problem.

For example, accordingto Ministry of Health statistics, 2.2 million Kenyans are ill with HIV, withaverage 500 deaths every day. African medics do not wantto show medical results to their patients and to the government.

They say thatthey do not reveal HIV results to prevent the patients from fear of bad news. Some patients literally die hopelessly before their eyes , they said. Anotherproblem is that when some patients learn they are HIV positive, they go ontheir rampage, despite the counseling we give them, said Matulumbu, an HIV AIDSspecialist. The doctor, like his colleagues, said a number of patients eventook loans while others mortgaged family assets to use the money to spread thedisease.

Such patients left their families double dilemma.Dr. Matulumbu said We are facing a serious problem because medics are not trained on how tocounsel HIV patients, yet we are expected to be a counselor and a doctor at thesame time. The patients, HIV and AIDS positive express discontentabout the doctors curing them. If the owner of the factory, a sick African isworking for, finds out that the worker is sick, he automatically dismiss himfrom his work job. The owners of the companies do not want to deal withinsurance of sick workers, and do not want to employ HIV ADIS patients. Thereality is sad, but it is true. Patients hide their results of HIV AIDS tests,and it is difficult to determine the number of sick Africans.AIDS is not a disease thatcan be either determined or cured.

The real number of people with HIV positiveis not known.Some of them do not want to talk about the disease, others simplydo not know they are sick. To help in preventing AIDS, UNSecretary-General Kofi Annan, in his speech at UN conference for LeastDeveloped Countries, proposed to organize a global AIDS fund to sponsor thefight against AIDS. The world s wealthy nations are allegedly holding offdonations to a proposed UN global health fund, arguing, there are not enoughguarantees that the money would be spend correctly, the Associated Press saidon May 19, 2001. Reporting from the UN conference for Least Developed Countriesin Brussels, AP said that many countries remained skeptical aboutUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan s proposed US 7-10 billion fund to fight thespread of AIDS and other infectious diseases.

It quoted Poul Nielson, theEuropean Union s EU development commissioner as asking What will thisfund do better than what we are doing now If we are just talkingabout a global AIDS fund, we will not participate.

It is too narrow, headded.

The EU reportedly wants the fund to include other transmittable diseasesand tie it to providing cheaper drugs for poorer countries.The United States is the only large country tocontribute to the global fund so far, pledging US 200 million last week. Thatcontribution was criticized by, among others, the US-based Health Gap Coalitionas paltry . The coalition called for Washington to allocate US 2billion in new money.See www.healthgap.org Annan said on Thursday in Geneva thatthe proposed fund would be a major tool for economic growth in the developingcountries.

He said that plans for the fund are progressing. He noted that thefund should be governed by an independent board, made up of stakeholdersincluding governments from both donor and developing countries, NGOs, theprivate sector and the United Nations.The running of the fund should be donethrough a small secretariat, which would draw on a technical advisory body madeup of international experts in the fields of health and development.

Addressingconcerns that the proposed fund would pull money away from existing healthprograms, Annan stressed that the fund must be additional to existing funds andmechanisms, not just a new way of channeling money that is already earmarkedfor development. Althoughworking, the efforts of the United Nations are not enough without actualfinancial support they ask for. There is still a great need in money and peopleto fight AIDS in African countries.The UN pledges for the support fromeconomically developed countries to help less developed ones. It is extremelyimportant that the society fights this crucial disease, for it does not belongonly to Africans, but to all the inhabitants of the earth.

Therefore it iseveryone s problem. People with HIV AIDS did not choose to be sick. It is timeto start helping them before it is too late.