I heard a report on the BBC from an Austrailian researcher that, in Botswana, Africa, 90 percent of 15-year-old males will eventually die from the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping across sub-Saharan Africa. What's worse, the mis-use and over-prescribing of drugs is making this strain of the virus resistant to treatment. As many as half a billion people, most in Africa and Asia, will die from the disease over the next 50 years. I find this to be just awful and inhuman. Sorry, but I couldn't find a link very quickly but there are plenty of links about the AIDS epidemic in Africa at Google News.
yeah its pretty bad over there. there are so many problems in africa it is insane. who knows where to even start with fixing the problem because simply throwing more and more money at it does nothing. the governments in most of africa are failing or more corrupt than enron. education is terrible on the disease and it seems like there is no way to solve it. its also pretty bad when superstitions like having sex with a virgin is a way to cure the disease are still prevalent. i dunno...but this is shaping up to be the biggest human crisis ever. but if we learn how to kill a virus from it then it could end up being the biggest human triumph ever, even more so than finding a cure to cancer.
Something needs to be done about this...but what? People smarter than I are going to have to solve this puzzle. Since the epidemic there is so bad, maybe that could be the first place where there is widespread use of an AIDS vaccine. In any event...this is a tragedy. NOBODY deserves to go out like that...let alone millions of innocents.
the weird thing is that botswana is just about the wealthiest, most political and socially stable, and peaceful country in sub-saharan africa. it also has the highest aids rates. approx 1/4 of the adult population has it now. they could take a few lessons from uganda: a worn-torn, poor country which has successfully combatted their aids epidemic.
According to Bono, Bill Gates has done more for the people of Africa then any other single person. Also Bush has proposed a ton of money for AIDs relief in Africa probably (and he'll never admit this) because of lobbying done by Bono.
Just how do you combat AIDS? I recently read that the vaccine trial failed. It should be noted that the vaccine was to fight against strain most common to America and Europe, meaning that Africa and other third world nations are SOL. And our HIV cocktail treatment to prolong life for HIV victims over here? People are misuing those as well and immunity by the strain might come around in 5-10 years. The AIDS/HIV pandemic is here to stay.
You combat AIDS through prevention...you go there..you get involved..you love the people..you care for them...you teach them...that's the only way I can see. It can't be an abstract, "well let's ship over drug X to them" sort of solution...not yet anyway. I refuse to believe it's here to stay...I refuse to tell dying people that we surrender in the fight for their lives. Where is Congress on Bush's proposal from his state of the union address?
Unfortunately, I've read that there will be some partisan bickering over this issue also, believe it or not. Before we join hands and slam the Demos, let me sketch what little I know. Some parts of the left: "This is an excellent proposal, but it includes giving up on a lot of internationally collaborative projects that we currently fund in order to do this big thing our own way. This could be inefficient and actually reduce the overall good that gets done." Some parts of the right reply: "No, these other collaborations were inert and fairly useless. We want to start something new, something with less negotiating and wrangling. We want to get something done for Africa now, not play international community footsie."
I heard one of the "treatments" for AIDS is having sex with a virgin. Misinformation leads to the spread of the HIV virus.
yeah...i kinda heard a little bit about that, too. i bet you know where i come out on that...criticism for bush that he doesn't endorse enough of these sorts of programs...then criticism when he proposes some enormous sum for not doing it within certain channels...and the willingness to sacrifice the aid altogether at the altar of international collaboration. once again...damned if you do...damned if you don't. just freaking help these people!
if it were only that easy....there is so much corruption in many of the african governments and poor education there is no easy way to just "help" the people. almost the whole entire continent is a wreck. for america to help the aids crisis over there we would basically have to install our own health care and education system to stop the kinds of activities that promote the spread of hiv. there is almost nothing we can do until they get more organized. i don't know a ton about ALL of africa, but i do know about nigeria and it is basically a train wreck and people only go into government to help out themselves and not the nation because there really is no nation, just a bunch of ethnic groups put together and called a nation by the rest of the world. i dunno...i am rambling...but there is no simple solution. the african countries have to take the 1st step because giving money away does no good if it isnt used properly.
This struck me a strange in the reports about the vaccine. The overall expected rate of infection was not reduced in the high-risk people who volunteered to take the vaccine, VaxGen Inc. said late Sunday. However, the expected infection rate for the 314 black volunteers who received the vaccine was reduced by 78 per cent - a finding the researchers said was unexpected. The rate was reduced by 67 per cent for all non-white volunteers other than Hispanics. http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/030224/w022436.html When this huge problem exists in Africa, with predominately black people being infected, why is this not significant? I must be missing something.
It isn't a simple problem. Even the researcher I heard on the radio said it may take a decade to teach people there that un-protected sex could kill them. There is also the problem of poorly trained physicians in the area that prescribe the wrong medication combinations. Truth is, though, if enough people had their attention focused on the issue of fixing the problem, it would get fixed and quickly. It's just not at the top of everyone's list.
yeah its significant but i think they were looking for a total vaccine. also in africa the people are of different ethinicities. american blacks are primarily west african, so they need to figure out the reasons for ethnic differences. here are some more things you needed to quote.... "A highly anticipated experimental AIDS vaccine failed to protect most people from the disease in its first major trial, but it did show promise in protecting blacks and Asians, its developer said." " "These results are promising," said Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, the UN's AIDS agency. " "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Vaxgen it would consider approving its AIDSVAX vaccine even if it were only 30 per cent effective - reflecting the urgency of finding weapons against the AIDS epidemic. But the VaxGen product did not manage even that reduced threshold. Most approved vaccines are more than 80 per cent effective." That last part is why it was disappointing for the company.
Education and empowerment of women is the only thing that will save Africa from AIDS. It is to late for any medicinal remedy to work there. Only radical social change will do it. Women in Africa are, in general, treated as sexual slaves and child-bearing machines. As long as they are treated so, prostitution and extreme male promiscuity will continue to plague the continent, and AIDS will continue to spread. They are also too poor to pay for our HIV cocktails, so that's out. And I suspect that a vaccine, when found, will be out of the price range required for massive distribution too. Africa is not, as a continent, up to the task I fear. Socially, they are too backwards (for lack of a better term). They have maybe 30 or 40 years to completely change their social structure, and they have no idea where or how to start. I think that most of it is probably a write off.
