Thursday, December 01, 2005
A true moment of silence.
Title link is to UNAIDS homepage with links to the Annual AIDS Epidemic report showing too few successes, and far too many disappointments.
MSNBC.com's World AIDS Day coverage
Pledges of abstinence, help on World AIDS Day. (CNN.com)
FDA panel considers home AIDS test. (CNN.com)
UN: 40m now have AIDS virus. Prevention starting to pay off in some countries, report says. (CNN.com)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
There may be too few accomplishments and too many disappointments, but aren't too few accomplishments better than none at all. Weigh the choices.
A point well made, the post wasn't meant as a disappointment, but as a signpost, a check-up, and a reminder. Quality of life with those who have AIDS has greatly improved, and awareness and destigmatizing of those with the disease in Africa has spread. While it's encouraging, the progress we've made in vaccine research and the decline in new cases in regions of Africa (mostly attributed to wider condom usage), the increase in cases in Eastern Europe- most notably in Russia- is disturbing. While the increase is currently limited to the high-risk group of drug addicts, (a growing problem in Russia to begin with) it's very worth noting that it is only a matter of time before that concentration of AIDS/HIV spreads into the general population, just as it did here in the US. And while education, needle exchanges, and general treatment of addiction can lessen the risk (as has been noted in studies in addict populations in the US) it's somewhat disheartening to discover how many countries (including the US) withold aid money to any program that advocates or uses needle exchange programs. The fear that needle exchanges promote drug use is crippling the fight against AIDS, just as the fear that condom usage and education promotes promiscuous sex does. And both fears are equally unfounded.
No one is gladder than I that we live in a time and place when something like World AIDS Day is even possible. While the news isn't always encouraging, and sometimes downright disturbing, it IS news, it IS reported, and it IS discussed. And no discussion, when undertaken with respect and in the hope of progess, is ever wasted.
PS. Next time, darling, leave your name (it's not that hard) and I won't snark at you when you walk in the door.
UNAIDS estimates that $9 billion will be spent next year but say $15 billion will be needed.
The War in Iraq Costs
$223,638,963,435 as of 10:45AM
Now, imagine if we spent as much fighting an epidemic as we do on war.
AIDS kills more people than war does, so why aren't we refocusing our resources?
because war makes people rich, aids doesn't
Of course it does, we don't get oil from Africa, and why on earth would the American government, with the religious right tied like a noose around its neck, go to the line for a bunch of drug addicts, homosexual, single-mothers, and people who are (shhhh!) having SEX outside of marriage.
Nope, its a policy of "toe our faith-based ideological line or you don't get your funds." Forget that the reality on the ground will never support such a policy, all it will do is alienate the people we most need to help. People need help, not sermons. Africa has finally made some progress, but other parts of the world are back sliding. I saw a good article on the growing AIDS poulation among drug-addicts in Eastern Europe, if I can find it again, I'll post it. It's a good argument against tieing (often counter-productive) conditions to aid money.....
Post a Comment