We rarely hear of AIDS in the UK today, even though newly diagnosed cases doubled
in 2005 to more than 7,500 compared to 2000. It’s even harder to imagine what it must be like for sufferers in Africa. By the end of 2005, there were five and a half million people living with HIV in South Africa, with almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day. And 74% of HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa were young women
To mark International Women’s Day, I urge you to listen to the podcast of Noerine Kaeeba describe how she is educating women about AIDS, the life-shattering stigma it carries for them.
Then read about the impoverished suffering of Alice Kironde, whose husband died from AIDS, the difficulties for women to protect themselves against this scourge. Here are some more harrowing stories about HIV-positive women.
Increasingly, in Africa and globally, HIV/AIDSS has a woman’s face. Not only are women more likely to be living with HIV/AIDS, they are also more likely to be the main carers for those who are HIV-positive.
In sub-Saharan Africa, for every 10 adult men living with HIV, there are about 14 adult women who are living with the virus. Across all age groups, almost 60% of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women. In some countries, like South Africa, young women aged 15—24 are up to four times more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts.
This may seem a world apart from our everyday lives. But we can help by supporting charities like AVERT (please recommend any others you know), as well as research projects. Please let others know too, pass the word around.
Most importantly, let’s pressurise our global leaders to keep their word to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic, they can really help make a difference and restore hope into the lives of those women.
Besides wanting to save our planet from climate change, we must also do everything we can to save the lives of those who live on it.
Totally agree with what you say, Ellee, and thank you for such an informative post. I didn’t know that so many more women than men were affected. We must do all we can.
I came across Noerine Kareeba many years ago when I lived in Uganda. This was before she was appointed to UNAIDS; in those days she worked alongside Ugandan NGOs, educating women about HIV. Inspirational woman.
Bel, Noerine sounds an unforgettable person, I tremendously admire her passion and spirit, her dedication and commitment to this cause.
It’s dropped out of the public eye and mind a lot – global warming is going to be the end of us instead now!
A dreadful disease. Our church helps support a children’s village in Zambia for orphans of AIDS. So many innocent sufferers.
Hmmm three interesting topics
1) New cases of HIV in the US (and I suspect in Europe too) are mainly transmitted by those who did not know they were infected, or tests had not shown to be infected – and of course those who treat it no more seriously than any other sexually transmitted disease
2) Contempt of Court – a touchy issue. A Judge is God in a Court Room. He can fine or imprison you at will – and yet he cannot force you to produce ‘evidence’
Alas Judges are not God, any more than doctors, or referees at a football match although they do like to behave godlike. Imagine a ref in the old days giving away a penalty or giving away a goal in a World Cup.
3) Sex Scandal? – we are talking about levels of HIV in Africa. Is that a real ‘sex’ scandal.
Thanks for pointing this out Ellee. I have seen this tragedy at home in Zambia firsthand. The HIV pandemic hits women and children very hard. Liz, thanks for supporting Zambia’s fight against HIV.
Q9, I like your final point – how true that is.
It also seems to be a lot of grandparents who suffer in Africa as a result of AIDS as they lose their children and are caring for grandbabies that they know have a short life expectancy.
Isn’t it important also that the drugs companies are influenced to support those in developing countries affected by such diseases. They have the solutions, but profits seem too often to get in the way of effecting change.
Did anyone see The Great Global Warming Swindle last night ? A complete debunking of global warming hysteria and a frightening assessment of manipulation and intimidation of educated dissenters. Ice cores show that CO2 levels peak after warming has taken place and not before, as misrepresented by Al Gore. The founder of Greenpeace is on there saying that turbines and solar panels are inefficient and wasteful and are actually holding back the African dream which is for sustained economic development:
Assist them with power stations and lighting and all the other civilising accoutrements so that they may heal themselves and not have to go on suffering our patronising ways.
I can also confirm that flourescent lighting strips (including the compact domestic type) contain mercury which requires special disposal. At my work place the heavy engineering department has special bins with warning labels on them.
Yes I `m sorry Elee but I do not go along with this sorty of ” something must be done” thinking quite aside from the enviromental scam and it is now becoming clear that the cynics were right.
Discrete focusse Aid may help but the voluntary agencies are wasting the money see Hitchens in the Mail ” and government AID stops the countries development and props up the genertally disgusting African Regimes.
WE have been throwing money at Africa for years and it has made matters worse. the only gainers are santimonious bleeding hearts like Bob Geldoff.
Why , by the way , do we need an international women`s day ?
Its all very well being “concerned ” but Western “concern ” does not help. I would be in favaour of ultra small scale NGOs only with wataretight budgets and specific aims . the charity swindle , BTW , is , on its own one of the scandals of the age
Newmania, You could always start an International Men’s Day! It is used as a platform to highlight issues that affect their lives.
Money is wasted everywhere, unfortunately, it happens in the UK too, and it is tragic that it has not always been used wisely in Africa.
Kevin, re the global warming programme, I didn’t see it, there will always be sceptics who manipulate data and scientific evidence. Sounds like your workplace is on board re the disposal of those light bulbs as hazardous waste, that’s what the law requires.
re. HIV in Africa, the best way to combat this is to introduce widespread programs to circumcise boys pre-puberty. For various reasons, too complicated to go into here, circumcised men are much less likely to transmit HIV to women. This would be the simplest and most cost-effective way to reduce the spread of infection _ and is far preferable to having to treat people for the rest of their lives with powerful drugs with often nasty side-effects i.e. anti-retrovirals. Access to these drugs has improved massively and drug companies have dramatically reduced the prices to African users.
re. the Global warming programme: so sorry you did not see it Ellie _ please look out for a repeat (on More 4?) it wasn’t a case of a bunch of sceptics at all, far more impressive than that.
David, Circumcision is a new one on me re the Aids programme.
I have the opportunity to see Nigel Calder in Cambridge next month who featured strongly in the programme, he doesn’t make many public appearanes, I will book my ticket this afternoon. I have also booked a ticket to see Al Gore here too. I will check out More4 for the repeat, thanks for highlighting it, and I was sorry to have missed it last night.
Lovely informative post, thank you.
Ellee, re. the circumcision thing: it’s all at thelancet.com. You need to register (it’s free) but then you can access most of the site gratis thereafter. Great source for any helath/ medical posts!
re. Global Warming _ Justin over at Hunter and Shooter has got a detailed post on the program/ the issues today.
This is something else Ellee – I mean really !
The Great Global Warming Swindle
To be repeated. Daily we have news reports about global warming – surely not too much for us all to make time to hear other arguments.
The contributors cannot be dismissed easily as some of them are erstwhile UN IPCC members who have resigned in disgust at the levels of disinformation about what causes CO2 build-up. All of them are Doctors, Professors and one of the contributors founded Greenpeace. The scientists’ papers are peer reviewed and scientific, unlike Eco-politicians rhetoric. Nigel Lawson (energy secretary under Thatcher) tells us how this theory was politicised under the Thatcher administration.
As for flourescent tubing – obviously not as environmentally friendly when dust-to-dust costs of manufacture and disposal are brought into consideration. I thought it was worth a mention.
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[…] AIDS figures continues to soar globally, as the chart shows. More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981. Africa has 12 million AIDS orphans. […]