WAISWA ABUDU SALLAM
UNLIKE ordinary wars in which only a special minority is mandated to determine the modus operandi necessary to outwit the enemy, in the war against HIV/AIDS, every person of age, irrespective of sex, race, nationality or level of education, is by virtue of being alive, a commander.
Everybody has a stake in his or her own destiny, and more often than not, one’s success is largely determined by how much they put in to avoid confrontation with this indiscriminately ravenous enemy, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Thus, thou who adopt the best strategy shall be safe!
As we celebrated the world Aids day late last week, the good news allover the world was that the epidemic has reportedly leveled off following a downward revision of official global statistics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Aids agency (UNAIDS), revealed that presently, the estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS globally is 33.2 million, and not 39.5 million as it had hitherto been reported. The changes in the numbers were allegedly a result of improved methodology, better surveillance by countries and changes in the key epidemiological assumptions used to calculate the estimates.
Numerically viewed, this is certainly a good step ahead. It shows how close the world is getting towards an HIV/Aids free generation, which is of course every humane person’s longtime dream. This is particularly true owing to the pain, anguish and economic blow this pandemic has caused to the entire world, and like Mr. Jean-Louis Sarbib, the senior vice president of the World Bank’s Human Development Network recently observed, in the most affected countries, the pandemic has eroded virtually all the economic and social gains of the past 30 years.
This has made the world so gullible that it is now willing to spend all that there is, just but to get a vaccine to this pandemic. According to reports from various international Aids Research centres, the world incurs more costs on HIV/AIDS related initiatives than on other social needs. In the late 1990s the International AIDS Vaccines Initiative (IAVI) reported that the private sector spends about $100m annually on developing Aids vaccine, an amount that it described as being too little to lead to any meaningful results.
This made several stakeholders to increase on their overall expenditures on HIV/AIDS research, and in 2000, IAVI further called for a threefold increase in global spending on AIDS vaccine research from $ 350m annually to $1.1bn. It is for this reason that there has been an observable increase in AIDS research, which has in effect, seen the emergency of quite a number of anti-retroviral therapies, hence casting new rays of hope among thousands of our brothers and sisters who were, but for these drugs, at the verge of dying.
Unfortunately, the more anti-retroviral drugs have been discovered is the more some people have gotten complacent about HIV. They look at these drugs as though curative. They have stopped viewing testing HIV positive as a death sentence, leading to an increase in the level of infidelity amongst both the young and old.
These misconceptions account for the threatening stagnation in the fight against this pandemic. One really wonders why, more people are getting infected every other day, especially in sub-saharan Africa in spite of a lot sensitization. There has been no behavior change. People still derive pleasure in sleeping with as many others as possible.
Yet according to world reports, irresponsible sexual habits account for most HIV infection cases. There is general reluctance among people, both married and unmarried to go for voluntary counseling and testing. In fact, I was specially enthused by the vigor with which President Kikwete, and the Tanzania Commission for Aids (TACAIDS) have reacted to HIV. At this rate, only those without ears shall make mistakes. It is very important that we all test for HIV, such that we get to be sure of our individual health status.
This will not only help the government in planning for how to secure our lives, through provision of anti-retroviral drugs to those that are infected, but also ensure systematic provision of preventive gadgets, like condoms. We need to get extra-committed against this scourge. It is high time we all realized that it is not the government that will primarily benefit from us being alive, but ourselves. After all, who told you that the world would come to a standstill merely because of your death? However important you think to be, be rest assured that with or without you, the world would be intact. As you die, others are born. Save for your relatives, the world will never miss you!
Therefore, instead of lying to each other against abstaining, being faithful and using condoms, we had better learn how necessary to take control of our lives, by doing only what will not leave us in unending regrets. For the young, abstinence is certainly the best option, while for the married, being faithful does it better for you and for those of you who cannot live without it, better avail yourself the cheap protection of condoms.
Pleasant world statistics should not sway you from doing what is right. Yes, world infection rates might have reduced, but who told you that the virus is no more? Whereas it is good to believe statistics, I am rather reluctant to take them as the gospel truth.
The truth is only what you and I see here on the ground, not what we hear. If you really want to know the truth, better visit one of the wards in that hospital next to you. I am sure you will make the best decision thereafter!
E-mail: waiswasallam@yahoo.com
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