HIV and AIDS in Africa Today

When I first saw the title for this article I said to myself, "Oh wow. AIDS." It brought AIDS to the front of my mind again.

I remember in the late 1980's when we heard so much about AIDS, on a daily basis. We couldn't turn on a television set without hearing a News report about someone suffering, or who had died from AIDS. Talk shows exposed people with AIDS, including young children. I remember an Oprah show in which two young children, both friends who were suffering with AIDS, were pretend-married on the show. I remember another young girl being profiled on Oprah and then finding out later that she had died. My heart was broken. Many documentaries were done on AIDS patients as they died and how it affected their partners, spouses, family and friends.

There were AIDS Walks and other AIDS fundraisers.

We heard about the cocktail drugs as a combination of many drugs which were prolonging the lives of people who were HIV-Positive and who had full-blown AIDS.

Ryan White made AIDS so prominent in our minds, when we heard he was expelled from his middle school because of having the disease. He was just a hemophiliac who contracted it from a blood transfusion. He didn't contract it from being a homosexual and he was still condemned by some in the outside world. For 6 long years we watched and struggled with him as he fought people's attitudes and the pain and suffering the disease itself caused his body, until the day he died. Many celebrities supported and befriended Ryan White. His death was a tragedy for all of us who got to know him and loved him.

Personally, I had a very young relative who died of AIDS. AIDS took away his mind and his body little by little until the moment he died. It was very sad to see someone I always knew as being so full of life with a great sense of humor and so healthy to deteriorate and then die so young of AIDS.

Then we started to hear less and less about AIDS as the years progressed. Today, here in America, we hardly hear it spoken about any more.

Are people in America today still being diagnosed as being HIV-Positive and having full-blown AIDS? They definitely are. We just don't hear about them anymore. Today we hear mostly about cancer and heart disease in America.

Knowledge is power. I would also like to believe that emphasizing birth control methods as prevention of HIV and AIDS, along with making people more knowledgeable and aware of both diseases have contributed to the large decrease of cases here in America.

As we heard about HIV and AIDS sufferers here in America, we also heard about AIDS being so common in Africa with documentaries, talk shows and News shows revealing young children who had lost their parents to AIDS and/or who were struggling with the disease themselves. To some we felt that AIDS was more a disaster in Africa than it was in America. Their lack of birth control, supplies, drugs for treatment, resources and healthy, clean living conditions and their lack of knowledge added to the spread of the epidemic in Africa.

Where does HIV and AIDS stand in Africa today?

Starting in the early 1980s Africans infected with HIV and AIDS gradually increased from area to area as people moved about and spread the disease. Overall, both illnesses went from being serious illnesses to epidemics over the years.

According to the website http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-africa.htm HIV and AIDS are still epidemics in Africa and continue to rise. Some areas in Africa have more HIV and AIDS cases than others. The website states that Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.4 million people are living with HIV in the region, which is two-thirds of Africa's global population. In 2008 around 1.4 million people died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 14 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.¹

Around 390,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa became infected with HIV in 2008.² The vast majority of these children have been infected with HIV during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding, as a result of their mother being infected with the virus.

That is extremely sad about those 390,000 children who would have otherwise had a healthy, joyful life ahead of them since birth.

The website concluded that since the beginning of the epidemic in Africa more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS. They compared that amount to the combined total populations of London and New York. That is certainly an awful lot of people.

As a result of the continued lack of money, prevention, treatment, care and facilities, it is expected that the AIDS death toll in the most infected areas of Africa will continue to rise.

Who does HIV and AIDS effect?

HIV and AIDS negatively affects the lives of those who have it and the whole community in which they live in.

Since AIDS is so prevalent among Africans their life expectancy has decreased dramatically. The website http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-africa.htm states that the average life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the majority of AIDS cases, is now 47 years, when it could have been 62 years without AIDS. 47 years old is considered very young here in America as we hear of more and more people living to be 100 years old.

In Africa, an AIDS patient's household is totally affected by the diagnosis. In some families they have lost their income earners, or the income earners are caring for the sick person. In many households there is more than one member who has AIDS. Orphans are struggling to survive without a parent(s) and some are taking sole care of their younger siblings.

Healthcare and supplies are much needed but very little is available and much is unaffordable.

Many schools are heavily affected by AIDS, as the students continue to try to get an education as the suffer with HIV or AIDS.

In Africa HIV and AIDS has also affected businesses. According to the website http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-africa.htm the vast majority of people living with HIV and AIDS in Africa are between the ages of 15 and 49 years old, which is in the prime of their working lives. Many schools, businesses, hospitals, etc. have lost some of their employees and had to replace them if they could. A lack of employees equals a lack of productivity. The entire economy suffers as a result of the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Africa.

What are they doing in Africa to reduce the HIV and AIDS cases?

As politicians here in Arizona try to gain control of our borders, politicians in Africa are trying to get a grip on the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Africa. Communities are also trying to work together to decrease the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

Some areas of Africa have been more successful than others to decrease HIV and AIDS cases, but the effort continues. In Uganda for example, HIV among pregnant women fell from a high of around 30% in the early 1990s to around 10% in 2001.³ Unfortunately in South Africa the opposite is true. There an estimated 70,000 babies who continue to be born with HIV every year.

Africans both young and old are being educated to practice safe sex and counseling is provided if needed.

In Africa more testing for HIV and AIDS has been available compared to its availability in the early 80s.

In Africa there has also been more antiretroviral drugs available to pregnant women which significantly reduces the risk of a mother's chances of passing on the infection to her child. Without such interventions, there is a 20-45% chance that an HIV-positive mother will pass the infection on to her child.

Is HIV and AIDS still an epidemic in Africa?

Absolutely!

Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of HIV and AIDS cases are, continues to be severely affected by the problem, due to a shortage of drugs, services, information and testing facilities. They still need so much more of each to get a grip on the epidemic.

Even though the availability of antiretroviral drugs doubled in Africa in 2005⁴ compared to the previous years many more drugs are still very much needed. In 2006, preventive drugs reached only 31% of HIV-infected pregnant women in Eastern and Southern Africa, and only 7% in West and Central Africa.⁵ In 2009, for most Africans living with HIV, the antiretroviral drugs were still not available - just under half of those in need of treatment were receiving it.⁶

Once a person needs drug treatment for HIV and AIDS that person has to stay on the drug(s) for the rest of their life.

Distributing these drugs requires money, a well-structured health system and a sufficient supply of healthcare workers. As I stated above, the majority of developing countries in Africa are lacking in these areas and have struggled to cope with the increasing numbers of people requiring treatment.

The overall epidemic of HIV and AIDS cases in Africa is slowly improving. It is their goal to drastically combat the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

What can we do to help?

It is no doubt that international support of many governments and international organizations encouraging has contributed to the progress of combating HIV and AIDS in Africa.

International funding will enable Africa countries to increase their drug supplies, improve treatments for infection and HIV and AIDS, increase the tests available, increase preventive counseling, increase preventive campaigning, improve their healthcare facilities and hire more medical professionals who are needed to give the drugs.

We also see too often on television African adults and children starving. More international funding will provide them with more food and resources and supplies to grow more of their own food which will provide them with the nutrition they need to stay healthy and to fight off infections.

Many American healthcare professionals often go to Africa to assist and treat the sick. Such help should definitely continue and increase if possible.

Let's help give those in African countries who have HIV and AIDS a better life.

Let's help stop more cases of HIV and AIDS from developing in all African countries.

References:

AVERT INTERNATIONAL AIDS CHARITY (2010, April)
http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-africa.htm
1. UNAIDS (2009) 'Report on the global AIDS epidemic'

2. USAID (2002) 'What happened in Uganda? Declining HIV prevalence, behavior change, and the national response'

3. UNAIDS (2009) 'Report on the global AIDS epidemic'

4. UNAIDS/UNICEF/WHO (2008, April)
'Children and AIDS: Second stocktaking report'

5. UNAIDS (2006)
'Report on the global AIDS epidemic' Chapter 7: Treatment and care

6. WHO/UNAIDS/UNICEF (2009) 'Towards universal access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector'