Serious stuff

Een opstel dat ik in de 6e klas van de middelbare schreef. Het is in deze tijd nog steeds van toepassing. Vandaar ook dat ik het wel interessant vond om te posten.

Aids in Africa

"Poverty, and not HIV forms the background of the aids-epidemic in Africa." Especially in South-Africa aids seems unstoppable. By having this point of view, the president of South-Africa, Thabo Mbeki, received a lot of harsh critics and anger from international Aids-fighters, the gay community and the world health and development experts.

The South-African president follows the lead of John Duesberg, an American who claims that the direct link between HIV and aids does not exist. They do not seek for the cause in the virus, but look for it in the lifestyle and living conditions of the aids victims. This is in contrary with almost all aids-examiners since the 80’s. Mbeki’s different point of view caused anti-aids-campaigns to be halted. He accused the anti-aids-campaigns of being ‘Western weapons’. He pleads for an ‘African solution’ but does not find the aids-epidemic to be one of the top priorities of the country. This attitude caused the Mbeki-government to be partly guilty of the mass death among the African communities.

The situation in Africa worsens every day. Also in other continents the number of aids-infected people is rising. Facts show that carriers of the HIV-virus in the USA and in West Europe are increasing daily. Nevertheless: ninety present of the HIV-infected live in third world countries and two-third, about 25 million people, live in sub-Sahara Africa. It is believed that approximately halve of the 15-year old boys, in South-Africa, does not make it to his 25th birthday. Aids has even pushed aside malaria as the main cause of death in Africa. Yet African leaders act like there is no such thing as an epidemic going on.

We have to face the reality that Aids is not just a health issue problem. It is also a problem of development in Africa for this virus is indeed linked to poverty. Africa is underdeveloped; the government does not have enough money to create a decent infrastructure for public health care, to provide education or to hold prevention campaigns. The population barely has enough money to provide for themselves let alone pay for expensive medical treatments. Religious convictions, cultural factors, promiscuity and the unequal division between men and women form the recipe for a continental drama with HIV as heritable contamination source. Donor-organisations realize how much aids undermine the process of development in Africa. The active-economic-population decreases and according to the Worldbank and UNAids 15 to 20 percent of the wealth shall be wiped away. This will eventually lead to a negative spiral of economic regression, more poverty and the further spread of HIV.

In this perspective religious leaders, in countries were governments hesitate to start active prevention campaigns, take on an incomprehensive mentality. The Christian and Islam believe that condoms should be forbidden. They think condoms encourage promiscuity. This stands in the way of safe sex. In the mean while radical activist lay the blame for aids on the pharmaceutical industry. The medicines for slowing down the process of aids are extremely expensive. But even when prizes go down, the pills will remain unreachable for the poorest of people.

The question that we need to ask ourselves therefore is: how do we continue to fight Aids in the short and long term? African underdevelopment can not be broken through one day after another. The HIV-spread does have chances of being halted. But only money and medicine is not enough. Minimal necessities are drastic health-issue-campaigns to educate people about safe sex, big taboos and the relation between men and women. To achieve this help is needed from international organisations, social organisations, multinational institutions and the local government. Political leaders of Africa must fight for their country and must not give a false pretension of current affairs. Even with the right circumstances success is not guarantied and results will only be visible after a long period of time. Yet we have to stand strong and believe we can cure Aids.