Доклад: AIDS in Africa
Доклад: AIDS in Africa
AIDS
IN AFRICA
Iulia
Pariniuc
Stoneleigh-Burnham
School
Posted
on 05/27/01
AIDS
is becoming one of the most important problems of the modern world. According
to “AIDS Epidemic Update 2000” and the World Health Organization (WHO), the
current number of people living with HIV or AIDS is 36.1 million, more than 50%
higher than predicted in 1991. And this number is increasing every day, hour
and minute. The greatest number of inhabitants sick with AIDS or HIV live in
Africa. Over17 million Africans have already died of AIDS-three times the
number of AIDS deaths in the rest of the world, orphaning 10 million or more
African children. “The AIDS situation in Africa is catastrophic and sub-Saharan
Africa continues to head the list as the world’s most affected region,” said
Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS. According to his report, estimated
3.8 million people became infected with HIV in sub –Saharan Africa during the
year, bringing the total number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the region to
25.3 million, or almost a million more than in 1999.
The
reason of such great spread of the disease is inadequate level of living and
absence of needed education. According to WHO, more than 50% of African
population does not live a safe sexual life, and the increase of number of
drugs deteriorate the problem. For example, according to Ministry of Health
statistics, 2.2 million Kenyans are ill with HIV, with average 500 deaths every
day.
African
medics do not want to show medical results to their patients and to the
government. They say that they do not reveal HIV results to prevent the
patients from fear of bad news. “Some patients literally die hopelessly before
their eyes”, they said. “Another problem is that when some patients learn they
are HIV positive, they go on their rampage, despite the counseling we give
them, said Matulumbu, an HIV/AIDS specialist. The doctor, like his colleagues,
said a number of patients even took loans while others mortgaged family assets
to use the money to spread the disease. Such patients left their families
double dilemma. Dr. Matulumbu said: ”We are facing a serious problem because
medics are not trained on how to counsel HIV patients, yet we are expected to
be a counselor and a doctor at the same time.”
The
patients, HIV and AIDS positive express discontent about the doctors curing
them. If the owner of the factory, a sick African is working for, finds out
that the worker is sick, he automatically dismiss him from his work job. The
owners of the companies do not want to deal with insurance of sick workers, and
do not want to employ HIV/ADIS patients. The reality 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 that can be either determined or cured. The real number of
people with HIV positive is not known. Some of them do not want to talk about
the disease, others simply do not know they are sick.
To
help in preventing AIDS, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his speech at UN
conference for Least Developed Countries, proposed to organize a global AIDS
fund to sponsor the fight against AIDS. The world’s wealthy nations are
allegedly holding off donations to a proposed UN global health fund, arguing,
there are not enough guarantees that the money would be spend correctly, the
Associated Press said on May 19, 2001. Reporting from the UN conference for
Least Developed Countries in Brussels, AP said that "many countries"
remained skeptical about UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's proposed US $7-10
billion fund to fight the spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases. It
quoted Poul Nielson, the European Union's (EU) development commissioner as
asking: "What will this fund do better than what we are doing now?".
"If we are just talking about a global AIDS fund, we will not participate.
It is too narrow," he added. The EU reportedly wants the fund to include
other transmittable diseases and tie it to providing cheaper drugs for poorer
countries.
The
United States is the only large country to contribute to the global fund so
far, pledging US $200 million last week. That contribution was criticized by,
among others, the US-based Health Gap Coalition as "paltry". The
coalition called for Washington to allocate US $2 billion in new money. (See
www.healthgap.org)
Annan
said on Thursday in Geneva that the proposed fund would be a major tool for
economic growth in the developing countries. He said that plans for the fund
are progressing. He noted that the fund should be governed by an independent
board, made up of stakeholders including governments from both donor and
developing countries, NGOs, the private sector and the United Nations. The
running of the fund should be done through a small secretariat, which would
draw on a technical advisory body made up of international experts in the
fields of health and development. Addressing concerns that the proposed fund
would pull money away from existing health programs, Annan stressed that the
fund must be additional to existing funds and mechanisms, not just a new way of
channeling money that is already earmarked for development.
Although
working, the efforts of the United Nations are not enough without actual
financial support they ask for. There is still a great need in money and people
to fight AIDS in African countries. The UN pledges for the support from
economically developed countries to help less developed ones. It is extremely
important that the society fights this crucial disease, for it does not belong
only to Africans, but to all the inhabitants of the earth. Therefore it is
everyone’s problem. People with HIV/AIDS did not choose to be sick. It is time
to start helping them before it is too late.
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