119 people die every hour from AIDS, 31 of those are children. WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Submitted by Lynda Piper-Roche on 23 October 2009 - 9:47am

HIV is now a chronic illness and not a death sentence, since the introduction of ARVs (HIV medication). These drugs have done for HIV what insulin did for diabetes in the 1950s. The international community must do two things: CREATE WIDER ACCESS TO HIV MEDICATIONS and DISPEL THE STIGMA AROUND HIV & AIDS in order to combat this pandemic.

ACCESS TO TREATMENT: Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently launched an e-mail campaign calling on nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to release their patents on specific HIV medications into a collective pool that will increase access and affordability to treatment in developing countries.

The STIGMA - the fact that people will not get tested for fear of being excluded by their friends, families and partners, that many people will not adhere to their medication for fear that friends or colleagues may see them take their medication (must be taken around the same times every day) is detrimental to fighting this pandemic.

Many years ago people who suffered with cancer were stigmatised against! So there IS hope that HIV & AIDS will lose its stigma. As Martin Meredith wrote ‘Do not point fingers at people with AIDS – Anyone can get AIDS, even YOU’ (The State of Africa, 2006). Can you safely say that you have never been in a position that if you were in the 'wrong place at the wrong time' that you could now have the virus? Just imagine being stigmatised against now....just by being unlucky... In Africa, most HIV transmission occurs between HETEROSEXUALS and MOTHER-TO-CHILD transmission and not through prostitution or intravenous drug use... essentially people contract HIV through 'normal' behaviour...

I have previously talked about myths surrounding HIV & AIDS. One issue that I would like to mention was that in our HIV & AIDS training with Aine Costigan of Dtalk (fantastic training) there were two men who have been working in Africa for the past eight years. Both were worried that they could contract the virus just by shaking hands with a HIV+ person or being near them when they sneezed...But they no longer think that because they decided to take the step and inform themselves. This showed me the depth of our ignorance and lack of awareness, which only serves to deepen the stigma... we have no excuse not to make ourselves aware of global issues, we have an excellent education system, access to the internet and books and wikipedia too!!

Log onto www.avert.org and learn something!!