awareness of aids in africa

What is the point of having these “days” anyway?

They come, they go, maybe we wear a pin, then we go back to worrying about how we’ll get through the credit crunch and what we’ll buy for Christmas and who’s going to win X Factor.

The purpose of these days is for one thing and one thing only…AWARENESS.

If you know one thing about AIDS tomorrow more than you did yesterday then it was all worthwhile.

Sure, we’d love to donate tons of money to research, to making the drugs cheaper to those who need them, to treating those directly affected by the virus.

But if we think just spending one day per year raising money is going to get anywhere near achieving those ends then we’re fooling ourselves.

So we go back to awareness.

Personally, I want to become more aware by getting answers to these questions…

• Are there any differences between AIDS in Africa and AIDS elsewhere in the world?

• How serious a problem is AIDS in Africa?

• Which part of Africa is worst affected?

• Is the problem getting better or worse?

• Why is HIV more widespread in Africa than elsewhere in the world, and why are some parts of Africa affected more than others?

• Did AIDS originate in Africa?

• Do unsafe injections cause many HIV infections in Africa?

• Do many people become infected with HIV as a result of cultural and traditional practices such as polygamy, widow inheritance, sexual cleansing, dry sex, blood oaths, scarification or tattooing?

• Does poverty cause AIDS?

• Is AIDS a “solution” to overpopulation in Africa?

• Are Africans unaware of HIV? If not then why is it still spreading?

• How many Africans have taken an HIV test?

• Are there any African “success stories”?

• How is the world responding to HIV and AIDS in Africa?

• Are anti-AIDS drugs effective in Africa, and can Africans adhere to daily treatment?

• How many Africans are receiving HIV treatment?

• What are the challenges to scaling up treatment access in Africa, and can they be overcome?

• Many Africans suffer from malnutrition, poor sanitation and other diseases like TB and malaria, so why spend so much money tackling AIDS?

• Is the world providing enough assistance to Africa?

• Is AIDS just a new name for old diseases?

• Why do some websites say that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS in Africa, and that it’s caused by malnutrition or dirty water?

…so I went to this website to find the answers.

We all have our own lives, our own worries, our own goals.  

But the more we learn about things like this, the more we care about them.  

The more we care about them, the more chance there is of someone down the line actually doing something about them.

I strongly urge you to make yourself aware.

© JL Pagano 2008