Deadliest Epidemic of HIV-AIDS Can Be Curbed
By Dr Raghbir Singh Bains
HIV-AIDS is the worst and deadliest epidemic that humankind has ever experienced. It has spread faster with more catastrophic long term effects than any other disease. It is escalating in high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, truckers, drug users and those indulging in immoral trade. In addition to AIDS being a public health issue in the world it has also become a serious socio-economic and developmental concern.
East and Southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions in the world. It is estimated that only 10% of the world’s population lives south of the Sahara, but the region is home to two-thirds of the world’s HIV-positive people, and it has suffered more than 80% of the AIDS deaths.
HIV-AIDS First Detected in 1981 About 33 years ago, no one imagined that Top of Form
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AIDS would become the deadliest epidemic in history. Since June 5, 1981, Top of Form
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HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has killed more than 39 million people, additionally infected 39 million others and left a legacy of unspeakable loss, hardship, fear and despair to humanity throughout the world. Its spread was hastened by ignorance, prejudice, denial, the freedoms of the sexual revolution and the use of contaminated needles. Along the way from oddity to pandemic, AIDS changed the way people live and love.
AIDS is Robbing Africa AIDS is a slow plague that remains hidden in individuals for 5 to 10 years before killing them. Across Eastern and Southern Africa according to UN statistics, more than 13% of adults are infected with HIV. The World Bank is of the view that life expectancy in many African countries has been shortened to 47 years instead of 64 because of HIV-AIDS. Quite literally it is also believed that HIV-AIDS is robbing Africa of a quarter of their lives. In countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, more than a quarter of adults carry the virus. In some districts, the rates are even higher. In another study, a staggering 59% of women attending prenatal clinics in rural Beitbridge, Zimbabwe tested HIV-positive.
Total Patients of AIDS and Deaths in World
It is estimated that since the start of the epidemic, around 78 million people have become infected with HIV out of which 39 million have died of AIDS related illness. In 2013, there were 24.7 million HIV sufferers in Sub Saharan Africa, 4.8 Million in Asia and the Pacific. According to official figures in 2013, there were 3.5 million AIDS victims in India; of which Punjab housed 39,000 and Amritsar district 11,160.
At the end of 2011 an estimated 71,300 Canadians were living with HIV and a further estimated 24,300 people with HIV had died due to an HIV-related illness or other cause. This represents an increase of 11% since 2008. According to futuristic estimates and projections, it is feared that AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025.
Why AIDS Is Worse in Sub-Saharan Africa AIDS is worse in sub-Saharan Africa partly because of denial; partly because the virus almost certainly originated here, giving it time to spread before it came to the attention of the world; partly because of unemployment, helplessness, hopelessness, powerlessness and slavery.
New Generation of Orphans in Africa During the course of my study on HIV-AIDS in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya I had the experience of talking to dozens of AIDS patients and flesh traders living in dinghy rooms. It was awful and is beyond expression.
Unfortunately, HIV-AIDS has created a new generation of orphans in African countries. The epidemic has transformed kinship networks which have been the heart of most African cultures. Orphans, for example, have always been enfolded into the extended family. But millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both parents, and the virus is also killing their aunts and uncles, depriving them of foster parents and leaving them to live with often feeble grandparents.
Education is the Vaccine to Prevent AIDS Prevention is better than cure. Curbing of HIV-AIDS is not an easy job as there is currently no treatment vaccine. The only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid exchange of bodily fluids with contaminated people; so to avoid unprotected sex in brothels or otherwise, avoid sharing of needles etc. It is better to stay away from sexual contact with any partner, male or female, who is HIV-positive or whose sexual history is unknown.
However social media can help to combat with the killer disease through education and public awareness. Newspapers, radios, internet, television networks, broadcasters, role models, mentors, parents, teachers, preachers, opinion makers, political workforces, government machinery and educational societies can play a major role in restraining the spread of the disease. Socio-religious societies can help to fight with the disease through concerts, camps, seminars, books, public service announcements, competitions, hotlines and pamphlets to reinforce awareness, information and flashing messages about HIV related attitude and behavior. The facilitators can use their sources for removing stigma and discrimination attached with the disease. However, the peers are the best at convincing high-risk individuals to get HIV tested so that medical help is extended to them at an early stage.
