World AIDS Day
Today is World AIDS Day. Essentially, it’s a day to promote awareness of the global pandemic. There are candlelight vigils, lots of linked hand ceremonies, and everyone is supposed to wear the red AIDS ribbon.
It seems like a great idea in theory. A whole day for the world to at least think about AIDS more often and how it is impacting humanity. I believe awareness of the situation in Africa is indeed one of the only ways we can even begin to make an impact in this epidemic. But living in South Africa, where the number of HIV positive individuals soared to over six million this year, it seems kind of futile. I think about the hospital full of sick, dying patients in the medical wards not 100 meters from where I type these words. I wonder if they even know its World AIDS Day. Its just another day of living with the disease for them.
And these are not easy days. The experience of an sick AIDS patient in the hospital is filled with symptoms like chronic diarrhea, blinding eye infections, severe abdominal pains, uncomfortable and disfiguring rashes, unrelenting nausea, powerful headaches, and fear. Constant, permeating fear that one has no control over the disease that is ravaging their body.
When you see whole hospitals full of adults and children living like this, it kind of makes the hand holding and the ribbon wearing seem trite and tragically ill equipped to make an impact. But, for someone living in Texas or California, thousands of miles from the nearest South African AIDS patient, it is at least one small way to feel they are recognizing the epidemic. And that small way, is a lot better than nothing.
So on the radio or on CNN, you are likely to hear the most recent statistics put out by UNAIDS. They just came out in November and essentially say that HIV is still spreading rampantly. The worldwide prevalence of HIV has increased from 37.5 million in 2003 to 40.5 million in 2005. More than 3 million people died of HIV in 2001, 500,000 of them were children. South Africa has more cases of HIV than any other country in the world, with 6 million infected individuals. The official report can be found here.
Its easy to hear these numbers, and gloss over the millions here million there. We get so immune to the statistics, its easy to forget how significant those numbers are. I think a good way to keep it in perspective is this:
Currently, there are over 40 million people with HIV. If the disease were to stop being spread right now (which would be a tremendous miracle). That would still leave over 40 million people. That’s essentially double the population of Texas. So lets suppose that only this many people are affected.
That is still over 40 million people that will die a drawn out, painful, horrendous death over the next 5-10 years if nothing is done. 40 million people that will eventually end up in an understaffed, poorly equipped hospital where they are likely to die from any number of opportunistic infections.
It seems like a great idea in theory. A whole day for the world to at least think about AIDS more often and how it is impacting humanity. I believe awareness of the situation in Africa is indeed one of the only ways we can even begin to make an impact in this epidemic. But living in South Africa, where the number of HIV positive individuals soared to over six million this year, it seems kind of futile. I think about the hospital full of sick, dying patients in the medical wards not 100 meters from where I type these words. I wonder if they even know its World AIDS Day. Its just another day of living with the disease for them.
And these are not easy days. The experience of an sick AIDS patient in the hospital is filled with symptoms like chronic diarrhea, blinding eye infections, severe abdominal pains, uncomfortable and disfiguring rashes, unrelenting nausea, powerful headaches, and fear. Constant, permeating fear that one has no control over the disease that is ravaging their body.
When you see whole hospitals full of adults and children living like this, it kind of makes the hand holding and the ribbon wearing seem trite and tragically ill equipped to make an impact. But, for someone living in Texas or California, thousands of miles from the nearest South African AIDS patient, it is at least one small way to feel they are recognizing the epidemic. And that small way, is a lot better than nothing.
So on the radio or on CNN, you are likely to hear the most recent statistics put out by UNAIDS. They just came out in November and essentially say that HIV is still spreading rampantly. The worldwide prevalence of HIV has increased from 37.5 million in 2003 to 40.5 million in 2005. More than 3 million people died of HIV in 2001, 500,000 of them were children. South Africa has more cases of HIV than any other country in the world, with 6 million infected individuals. The official report can be found here.
Its easy to hear these numbers, and gloss over the millions here million there. We get so immune to the statistics, its easy to forget how significant those numbers are. I think a good way to keep it in perspective is this:
Currently, there are over 40 million people with HIV. If the disease were to stop being spread right now (which would be a tremendous miracle). That would still leave over 40 million people. That’s essentially double the population of Texas. So lets suppose that only this many people are affected.
That is still over 40 million people that will die a drawn out, painful, horrendous death over the next 5-10 years if nothing is done. 40 million people that will eventually end up in an understaffed, poorly equipped hospital where they are likely to die from any number of opportunistic infections.
But, there is good and bad news here. The bad news is that the number is not going to stay at 40 million. It will continue to grow and spread, though no one has any idea how much that number will increase. 50 million? 60 million? We just don’t know.
The good news is that we have medicines that can keep these people out of the hospital. Antiretrovirals are really all we have to try and keep this immense number of people healthy and living the kind of life they deserve to live. I know because I work with these people everyday. Many came to our clinics barely able to walk, and are now living relatively normal lives.
Currently, of the 6.5 million people that need antiretroviral medication (not all of the 40 million have HIV that is advanced to the point that they need medicines, though they all eventually will), only 15% are receiving it. This means that over 5.5 million people will die in the next few years if they do not receive treatment. ARV’s can help, but only if they get to the people that need them most.
So, what can you do? If wearing a ribbon and holding a candle is enough, then commemorate World AIDS Day, and help promote awareness in your community about this disease. That at least is something. But if you would like to do something more substantial, then donate to the Global Fund.
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria is one of the world’s largest contributors to getting antiretroviral medications into developing countries. In my opinion, they are the most reliable, most trustworthy organization. If you are up to it, I am sure they would appreciate your donation, no matter how small. As would the millions here in South Africa that are in desperate need of treatment.
posted by Cully @ 9:25 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
The stats on AIDS are staggering and scary. But, I think we too often get caught up in the numbers and forget that there are actual people attached to those stats. You touched on it a little bit, but I think the personal agony that AIDS patients go through is even more overwhelming than the numbers. I saw patients at McCord Hospital who had oral thrush so badly they essentially had pus oozing from their mouth; patients too ill and weak to sit up or even lift their arm for their bed bath; patients who had esophageal thrush so badly that they couldn’t speak and communicate their basic needs like, “I have to pee;” patients with blood literally seeping in trails out of their Kaposi’s Sarcoma sores on their legs and arms and face. It is absolutely the worst thing I have ever seen. No one should have to live like that or die like that.
I found a figure on www.peopleandplanet.org that said that it only costs about $140 (US) to support a person on ARVs for one year if they are on generics in the “developing world.” That is such a small amount of money, but when the disease is essentially devastating an entire nation the government can’t handle the cost on their own (or apparently even with PEPFAR money). That is why it is important to realize that, while millions of dollars are needed to make a difference in the pandemic, only a little bit is needed to make a difference in one person’s life. So, if people who read this blog do want to donate money to the Global Fund, I think it helps to know that every little bit does make a difference for at least one person.
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