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AIDS- A Global Problem

All the time I hear on TV or read in newspapers about people who die from AIDS. Especially in Africa people suffer the most. About twenty years ago was the first case of AIDS was discovered. And now it has gone so far that 40 million people suffer from HIV and aids. 28,5 million of them live in Africa, south of Sahara.

What is HIV and AIDS?
HIV is a virus that damages the immune defence. After several years with this infection the immune defence no longer can protect the body from virus, fungus and parasites. HIV never disappears by itself, the carrier carries the HIV-virus his whole life. But this doesn’t have to lead to AIDS. But if there is no medicine to treat the disease you will get AIDS and later die. If you get medicine regularly you can go back and live a quite normal life again. HIV is often transferred in unprotected sex but also trough blood, for example if people use the same syringe. Remember that you can’t get HIV trough social contacts, like kisses.

Africa, the worst affected part
HIV and AIDS mostly affects poor countries with social problems. Africa is, as you all now, a very poor continent. Many people in Africa have very hard conditions of living. We can’t find out why there are so many cases of HIV and AIDS in Africa through investigating how it is here in Europe. People in Europe can’t compare our lives with the lives of people in Africa because they don’t live during the same conditions like us in Europe. The most important factors behind this disease are poverty and shortage of resources. And these two important factors you can find in Africa. There are not enough doctors, hospitals, medicine and help for everyone. A poor society can’t afford to give information about HIV and aids which can reach all inhabitants. In some parts of Africa, and all over the world the people who rule don’t want to give information about sex, HIV and AIDS. These are some factors that have made Africa the worst affected continent. About 28,5 million of about 40 million cases of HIV and AIDS you can find in Africa, south of Sahara.

What can we do about it?
There’s still no vaccine that can stop this disease and until we have a vaccine we have to do other things that will make the numbers of carriers and the mortality to get lower. Nowadays we know much about HIV and AIDS, and we know how to take care of and support people who live with this disease. But there are many factors that leads to this terrible disease, and the factors are different in different areas. Africa and Sweden haven't same factors. It’s about different social, cultural and economic conditions. So it’s hard for organisations like the UN and Sida to know what to do. My opinion is that we must work with information that can reach everyone. It’s much easier for us who live in more open and richer societies to get information and talk about this disease. But like I said before it’s not so easy for people for instance in Africa to reach information of several reasons. I also think it’s important that everyone, it doesn’t matter which country you live in, always should have access to medicine and one step closer to this was taken in a WTO-meeting. It was a decision about cheaper medicine that treats HIV and AIDS for poorer countries. About 16 000 new people get the virus every day, and over 8 000 die daily from AIDS so things really need to get better, I mean what mother wants to lose her child? Or which child wants to se its parents getting sicker and sicker every day that passes and them finally die?