AIDS Crisis

AIDS Crisis

Post world war civilization around the world has undergone many changes. With modernization, urbanization and western ideas infiltrating many countries, traditional ways of life and culture have been forced to adapt to this new and fluid society. AIDS has been referred to as the “disease of modernity,” and nowhere has its devastating effects been more profound than in Africa, specifically, the sub-Saharan region. Before diving into the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS on African society, it is necessary to understand AIDS as a disease; it’s origin, transmission, and development. Tissue preserved in 1959 from a central African man has recently been identified as the earliest known case. Many speculate that AIDS may have spread from the blood of hunted chimpanzees to their butchers’ in the years after WWII. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is transmitted through bodily fluids, including blood, semen, and vaginal secretions. Most commonly, it is transferred through sexual contact, intravenous drug use where needles are shared, and through blood transfusions.HIV/AIDS is a viral disease which tends to progress in three distinct stages. Within the first several weeks after infection, acute, flu-like symptoms dev

Perhaps, however, the most demoralizing effect has been the sense of shame, fear, and denial that the people of Africa have developed. Mass migrations of people to urban areas in search of work began following WWII. As Thabo Mbeki, South Africa"tms vice president said, "The power to defeat the spread of HIV/AIDS lies in out partnership as youth, as women and men, as businesspeople, as workers, as religious people, as parents and teachers, as students, as healer, as farmers and farm workers, as the unemployed and the professional, as the rich and the poor, in fact all of us. This trend is in part due to the programs initiated throughout the continent in areas of sex education, the use of condoms, and the encouragement for fewer partners and an increase in the age of first sexual activity. One quarter of those deaths were among children. 5 million people of this region have died. "AIDS kills those on whom society relies to grow the crops, work in the mines and factories, run the schools and hospitals and govern countries"�It creates new pockets of poverty when parents and breadwinners die and children leave school earlier to support the remaining children. "�5Economically, for example, in South Africa along, HIV/AIDS is expected to cost the country one percent of its gross domestic product by 2005 and to consume three quarters of the nation"tms health budget. Many fell into the practices of drug and alcohol use and abuse, but most important to the issue of AIDS transmission, many turned to sexual promiscuity and prostitution. 7 In 1987, it was reported that for every AIDS victim, there are fifty carriers. 8 At present 6000 Africans die of AIDS and 11000 are infected every day. Poverty and poor education due to lack of resources are also reasons for the crisis in Africa. People simply don"tmt understand the dynamics of it. Despite these figures, the AIDS crisis is beginning to slow and stabilize.