Naming Death A-I-D-S :: AIDS

Naming finale I was visiting a restore in Kwazulu-Natal, the province hardest burgeon forth by AIDS, to see for myself the impact of AIDS in the region. The doctor was fair finishing up with an elderly patient from a village. After I introduced myself and stated the purpose of my visit, she immediately leaned towards the woman and demanded, Tell her, just break her how many tender people youve buried this week. The elderly woman quietly replied, Five funerals this Saturday. Every week about five or six. Weve been told that wiz in eight South Africans argon estimated to be HIV-positive, I said. My dear, the doctor matter-of-factly replied, its not iodine in eight here 95 part of the people I see atomic number 18 HIV positive. 95% I want you to close your eyes and imagine all of your friends and family - the people adjacent and de arest to you. Now, I want you to imagine 95% of them gone. This is what HIV does, this is what it is doing in South Africa and other p arts of the world. What we saw there is a certain genocide. Before our trip, all of us read the statistics and in some flair thought we understood the magnitude of AIDS epidemic, but you understand it solo when you realize there is a human face behind all statistic. When throughout the country it is estimated that 1 in 8 people are HIV positive, do we really think that this battle can be won by multivitamins and condoms? Yet, this is what I saw over and over again throughout Cape Town and other parts of the country. These people are living in poverty, health care workers told me. They cant get jobs. They cant even hold proper food, forget about drugs. The same doctor who told me that 95% of the patients are HIV positive lamented that the only treatment she can offer is multivitamins and one antibiotic How do we expect the younger generations to hope for a brighter rising in this environment? I was told that many South African young people have a fatalistic, Im-going-to- die-anyway attitude. How do you convince them to practice safe-sex? Or that their lives are worth living? Theres a stigma attached to existence HIV positive (we know that in this country as well).