AIDS is a disease without boundaries and the speed with which it has engulfed every part of the world proves it. Last year an estimated 2.7 million people were infected in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Worldwide the figure is about four million.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, Zimbabwe has the maximum number of children suffering from AIDS, the ratio is so alarming that one in every four children have lost at least one parent to the disease.
The deadly disease has put the nation’s future in jeopardy taking life of more than 3,000 people per week and is responsible for 70 percent of hospital admissions.
According to the data:
1. In 2004, the disease has orphaned more than 800,000 children.
2. In 2005, the figures escalated to 1,100,000.
3. HIV-related illnesses kill 3000 Zimbabweans every week and 72 babies become HIV-positive every day because of a lack of programs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
4. A decline in school enrollment is one of the most visible effects of the epidemic. According to the World Bank, the number of primary school pupils in 2010 will shrink by 24% in Zimbabwe.
5. 4146 cases of sexual abuse against children have been reported.
Reasons:
1. Melting down of the economy
2. Mass migration
3. Transmission of virus from infected mother to child
4. Orthodox traditions and customs like the ‘virgin myth‘
5. Early and forced marriages
6. Child Pornography
7. Criminal Networks and Trafficking
Prevailing situations:
UNICEF has managed to help around 40,000 children get back to school but with an estimated one in five children becoming orphaned by 2010, much more work needs to be done.
The scale of the orphan crisis is somewhat enveloped by the time lag between when parents become infected and when they die. If, as expected, the number of adults dying from AIDS rises over the next decade, an increasing number of orphans will grow up without parental care and love.
Many orphans in the area drop out of primary school before graduating, making them vulnerable to child labor and prostitution.
Many deaths go unreported in a nation where infection still carries a stigma and antiretroviral treatment is either unavailable or unaffordable to most of the 20% of the population estimated to be infected.
The government’s approach to the public health catastrophe is characterized by hypocrisy, indifference and denial. The medical system had collapsed, with equipment broken and shortages of doctors, nurses and drugs.
The economic reforms, which have been introduced in order to combat the epidemic, have been diluted by inflation.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, international donors have significantly reduced direct assistance to Zimbabwe since 2000 due to President Mugabe’s appalling human rights record and failed economic policies.
Bottom line:
I think instead of putting huge capital for disseminating awareness about the disease, the best possible way would be to diagnose the people of a particular region.
The shyness and fear that grips the diseased is playing more havoc and need to be addressed more deftly and shattered before moving ahead. In addition, the financial status of the victim hinders his way out of it. By voluntarily going amongst those and diagnosing, the people would definitely combat the fatal disease to some extent. Then, I guess, the awareness program would actually meet the required success. And all this is not possible without government’s support.
Image: Gettyimages
