HIV AIDS - the struggle to survive
Nasir was 18 when he left his family in Lahore in Pakistan. Like thousands of others like him who could not find a job he went to the United Arab Emirates to work. After working there as a manager of a large department store for many years, he had to renew his visa. In order to do this he had to have a medical check up. It was then that he discovered that he was HIV positive. He was subsequently deported back to Pakistan. Here he encountered many difficulties. Once his illness was confirmed, people started to treat him differently. Doctors made fun of him and told him that he should wear a red card around his neck to warn people about his illness. One doctor even went so far as to leak his story to the local press. This was to "warn" the local community about him. After this, his wife and four children were followed and photographed as they went to school or to the markets. Nasir felt so humiliated that he would not leave the house. He felt as though his world had collapsed. He just wanted to die.
Fortunately, he was not deserted by his wife and children none of whom have the virus. Nasir and his family have worked together to overcome their problems. Nasir now runs a bicycle repair business. He initially had problems with other shopkeepers and customers boycotting his business. Now things are much improved as people have learned more about the disease. Nasir now runs a support group for people like him who are living with HIV, so that they will not encounter the same sort of prejudice that he has. Slowly he has helped people to understand that those with HIV are deserving of respect rather than fear and of support rather than prejudice.
There are currently 40 million people throughout the world living with HIV/AIDS. 28 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa. These are all people like Nasir with their own story to tell and their own family and community problems. Life expectancy has dropped from 62 to 47 years because of the extent of HIV/AIDS in that region.
Over the next 20 years it is estimated that 68 million people will die prematurely as a result of HIV/AIDS. Last year alone 3 million people died from the disease worldwide. 83% of the world's AIDS deaths have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and 95% of the world's AIDS orphans are African. In Uganda alone there are 1.7 million children who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS. In some southern African countries, as many as one in four adults is HIV positive. This is a major catastrophe that is happening now. Most people who die of AIDS are young adults in the prime of their working lives and this has major consequences for the economic welfare of the region. It cuts down people in the prime of their productive lives.
It is no coincidence that sub-Saharan Africa is probably the poorest part of the planet. HIV/AIDS thrives in conditions of poverty. Effective treatments exist for the disease but they are expensive. Education programs that act to prevent the spread of the disease, are also very effective. Australia and other developed countries now have very low death and infection rates due to effective drug treatments and prevention programs.
Unfortunately, in a country like Zambia, where the annual average income is only around $400, the government has only about $17 per person to spend on health. 20% of the population is now HIV positive and treatment runs to thousands of dollars per year. At the same time, each Zambian owes around $720 in foreign debt. Debt repayments are around double what is spent on health.
The insistence by foreign companies, banks and governments that these debts be repaid is simply a recipe for continuing disaster. Every dollar that is spent on debt repayments is a dollar that could be spent on saving lives by treating those with HIV or preventing its further spread.
The world cannot turn its back on this injustice. The way forward is clear. Education, prevention programs and access to cheap drug treatments as well as a commitment by the developed countries to provide debt relief and more resources to fund these programs are essential to the survival of a large percentage of the next generation of the world's population. The loss of so much potential is simply a tragedy.
TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Science
1. Go to the following site to help you research HIV/AIDS: health.yahoo.com/health Answer the following questions:
a) Explain the difference between a virus and bacteria.
b) What does A.I.D.S stand for?
c) What does H.I.V. stand for?
d) How are HIV and AIDS related?
e) How is the disease transmitted?
f) What are some possible symptoms?
g) How does the disease progress?
h) Is the disease always fatal?
i) How can it be treated?
j) How successful are the treatments?
k) How can the disease be protected against?
l) Why is the disease so common in developing countries?
m) Why is HIV/AIDS less likely to be fatal in a country like Australia?
2. Go to http://www.who.int/features and read the three stories by clicking on the names of the people.
What difference can appropriate drug treatment make to a person with HIV?
How much does it cost to treat a person for a year?
How can the WHO's 3 by 5 program help?
Social Sciences
Go to http://www.who.int/inf-fs to read about the effects of infectious diseases on developing countries. Answer the following:
a) What is the leading killer of young people in developing countries?
b) Why do they particularly affect the poorest people?
c) How many illnesses and deaths occur each year due to these diseases?
d) What are the economic and social costs associated with these diseases?
e) How can national security be affected by these diseases?
f) What would it cost to treat these diseases now?
g) How much extra money will be needed to be spent to properly deal with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa?
Go to www.catholicrelief.org/what_we_do_overseas and look at the map of Africa and research the statistics for some of the countries coloured red. Add the numbers of orphans to find the total.
Go to www.catholicrelief.org/what_we_do_overseas/aids and go on the virtual tour of Uganda "Children on the Brink" to see the orphan crisis in that country. How are the issues raised being addressed in Uganda?
Go to www.globaleducation.edna for more lesson ideas on HIV/AIDS aimed at upper secondary students.
COMMUNITY AND PARISH GROUPS
On April 23, 2002, US Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that HIV/AIDS is "a catastrophe far worse by orders of magnitude than any problem or crisis we have on the face of the earth right now ... a catastrophe worse than terrorism". Discuss.
US Vice-President Dick Cheney, on August 29, 2002, said: "what we must not do in the face of mortal threat is to give in to wishful thinking or wilful blindness. We will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve".
Is Dick Cheney talking about the same thing as Colin Powell? He is actually talking about the imagined threat posed by Iraq as opposed to the real threat posed by HIV/AIDS. What does this say about the priorities of the US government?
The Catholic Church explicitly discourages the use of condoms and other forms of contraception. Would it be morally wrong to promote the use of condoms on the basis of harm minimisation? Is protected (with a condom) sex more morally justifiable than unprotected sex if the risk of HIV infection is high? Go to www.cafod.org.uk/hivaids for a discussion of this difficult issue from the point of view of a Catholic development organisation.
World AIDS Day is 1st December. "Live and let live" is this year's theme. Read the statement by Caritas Internationalis marking the day at www.cafod.org.uk/hivaids
