Analysis of 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen - Essay Example

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa This is a non-fiction book written by Stephanie Nolen, a Canadian and a representative of Globe and mail Africa bureau in 2007. The book uses 28 Africans who have or have been affected by HIV/AIDS. By 2007, 28 million Africans had HIV/AIDS as reported by UNAIDS, which is why Nolen used the figure 28 to represent the whole lot, one person for every million infected. She spent relatively long time almost six years reporting on the effects of the disease, travelled all over the continent collecting stories of men, women and children fighting day in day out with the effects or with the disease itself which has greatly affected the African economic progress. She even went into an extent of witnessing the stories herself, she travelled with a truck driver, followed an orphaned fourteen-year-old trying to find something for her survival and her baby brother in Ethiopia, met a HIV-positive nurse trying to help others in Malawi and even interviewed Nelson Mandela who had lost a son to the disease (Nolen, 2). This document will analyze the HIV/AIDS status in Africa as seen by Nolen in an effort show the relationship between love, sex and gender and the number of deaths related to this disease. The book, Love, Sex, and Power: Considering Womens Realities in HIV Prevention written by Amaro H. has tried to give a clear relationship between love, sexual practices and differences in the gender capabilities and the increasing number of HIV infections. This has been explained with the consideration 28 people given by Nolen in her book. The more people engage in love and unsafe sexual practices, the more we record the increasing number of HIV victims in Africa. Gender differences and sexual activities are the lead cause of AIDS deaths in Africa. In the year 2005, 33 million people were estimated to be living with HIV worldwide; 22.4 million of these came from sub-Saharan Africa, representing almost 70% of the total infected population globally. Africa has been the most affected in the world which has greatly posed as a development crisis in the region. HIV/AIDS claimed 2.4 million lives in 2002, which also represented 70% of 3.1 million deaths globally. The orphans left behind by the victims were almost 11 million in the region. Nolen’s research on the issue opens up more worrying situations on the pandemic and their side effects to the economy of the African countries (John, 6). Characteristics of the Epidemic in Africa Sex has been discussed as the main cause of death associated with AIDS (Amaro, 437). Heterosexual contact is the main or primary way which HIV, human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS. Most people engage in unprotected sex with their partners even without knowing their status. Women are the most hit population in the region at 58% of adult population who are HIV-positive. The young women, between the ages of 15 to 24 are the one who are more at risk, and the most worrying factor is that they get infected by the old men in the region, not the young Nolen gives a case of a young girl in Ethiopia who does everything to ensure her and her brother survives. The worst affected African region is the Southern and Eastern Africa (John, 12). They have higher numbers as compared to the Western Africa though it is also growing at an alarming rate. In most developed countries, a mother would be tested first before giving birth and a proper mechanism of delivery is conducted and mother given several ways to avoid infecting her child like to avoid breast-feeding. Nolen examines a different case in African delivery procedures. No one considers the existence of the disease in any case, no pretesting exercise is undertaken. This leads to infection of more than 700,000 infants in Africa every year, either during birth or breastfeeding (Susan, 48). These children do not live more than 5 years. As explained earlier 11 million children are orphaned in Africa, another estimation of 20.1 million children was expected to be orphaned by 2010. These children face difficulties due to stigmatization. They are abused and denied basic needs including education. Explanation to the Epidemic The widely blamed reasons for the spread of the AIDS epidemic are the economic and social factors, poverty taking the centre stage. Poverty has caused inability to access to health facilities, including information and education on the health sector and practices (Susan 23). They suffer from other diseases which makes them vulnerable to HIV infections. There are few institutions also which can give them educational and health assistance. For instance in Malawi, Nolen meets a nurse Alice Kadzanja who uses a lot of effort from herself to educate and cater for the HIV patients with little help from donors or even the government, Thabo Mbeki refuses to help in the AIDs eradication because he does not accept that it is transmitted by sexual activities and that ARVs can have any impact on the virus. The treatment and availability of ARVs can only be accessed by few (Nolan, 157). Poverty also forces most family heads to move out of their families in search of work to sustain their families. On their long distant workplaces, they engage on sexual intercourse with multiple partners without having to know their status. Nolen gives a case of a man in South Africa, Manuel who used to work in gold mines spending two years away from home. He contracted HIV and brought it home to his wife, meaning that they are both positive. Truck drivers are also victims of HIV infection, Nolen travels with a long distant truck driver, Mohammed Ali, from Kenya to Rwanda and reports on how they pick up any woman on their way as they rest and satisfy their sexual needs (Nolan, 41). They rarely use protective ways of having sex, ending up being HIV victims. Gender imbalances also contribute to this disease. Male practices which seem to undermine women rights are common in the African society (Amaro, 438). There are several African practices which also promotes the spread of the epidemic. Polygamy is still highly practiced in most African cultures. If in any case one of the wives was HIV-positive, it means that the husband will transmit the disease to all his wives. Wife inheritance is also common, after the death of an elder family member; the younger one takes the wife of the dead as a way of continuation of his family. This has lead to inheritance of HIV viruses, keeping in mind that they never bother knowing what caused the death of the deceased member. Early marriages are also still being practiced in these countries. This may explain why more young women are infected than young men. Old men marry young girls and the old men are the ones carrying the disease than the young men. This is because old men are more financially stable, satisfying the young girls material needs, girls jump into the marriage blindly being the HIV victims. Another gender problem is the susceptibility of more women being victims of HIV/AIDS is due to their lower rights being observed in African countries. Women have been viewed as inferior in the African culture who should submit to their husbands (Amaro, 440). This reduces their chances for negotiating for safer sex or even refusing to give in to a man’s sexual needs. They are locked out in the inheritance sharing propelling their poverty levels. Most women opt to other ways of providing for their families when their husbands are dead, ending up being commercial sex workers. They cannot have any decision to make in connection to a safer way to have sex; they only want to be paid. Nolen follows Tigist Haile Michael as she tries any possible ways, even offering her body to ensure survival of her and her baby brother. Women genitals also have a larger surface area compared to men increasing their chances of getting infected (Nolan, 33). Impacts of the Epidemic Social and economic consequences have been experienced in the African region due to HIV/AIDS from family levels to national economy. Female gender is the most affected side; children have been left orphans, looking after themselves with the elder being parents to the others like Tigist Haile (Nolan, 31). Others have been left with family members, Nolen visits Lillian Chandawili in a village called Nkhotakota in Malawi who is raising her five children as well as her late sister’s two children alone as her husband had died. One of the children was infected. Mothers are widowed and left to be the heads of families without anything to feed the large families, Lillian points at neighbors who are infected meaning that more families will soon face the same fate of having to leave their children behind. These children drop out of school at long last due to lack of fees or even to be the parents they aren’t prepared to be, Manuel’s children were forced out of school when their father was kicked out of workplace due to being infected. Hospitals also face another challenge of receiving large number of patients in the wards. Nolen visits a hospital where patients had to share beds in threes (Nolen 158). They were all victims of HIV and did not have enough doctors to meet their medical needs. Most government funds are used in purchasing drugs to curb the effects of this disease which means that other service provision will have to be compromised or an increase in the level of tax to meet the expenditure. The labor force is lost as most of the people suffering from the disease are the working class, Manuel was kicked out of gold mines, and another soldier was also forced out due to the disease (Nolen, 182). Efforts to curb the increasing spread of the disease Reducing gender differences and carrying out a proper sex education can help in the reduction of spread of the virus in Africa (Amaro, 445). Nolen pointed out great efforts of individuals who have sacrificed to see that HIV/AIDS is eradicated in the continent. The nurse in Malawi does all she can to ensure that patients are attended to (Nolen, 155). She also gives a thumb to campaigners who fights the sale of medications and wants them to be given out freely. One Christine Amisi refused to be part of UN and decided to a nurse for MSF and went through all dangers to ensure that drugs were supplied to her patients (Nolen, 99). Nelson Mandela is also a renowned leader who campaigned for proper policies to reduce the deaths of many South Africans due to the disease; his own son had died from the disease (Nolen, 313). The issue Nolen wants to clearly point out is why the world leaders are so dormant in acting to eradicate the disease or try to slow down its growing rate (Nolen, 347). They have refused to give financial assistance to the African governments in trial to fight this disease, and if they have, it might be too little or tome might have caught up with the fight. They have refused to fund campaigns trying to educate the natives while people are dying. According to Amaro, women need to be recognized equally like men when it comes to love and sexual activities. In our society, love and sexual activities goes hand in hand, they should be enjoyed in a proper way safe enough to avoid unwanted diseases (Amaro, 447). Female gender should be given equal rights as male and should be viewed in a manner not to undermine them and their weaknesses. This will ensure that deaths caused by love, sex and gender are reduced considerably. My conclusion from the book is that as far as people continue turning away from the concerns in the African region, the more the African people continue practicing outdated cultures, AIDS will continue being the leading killer in the society. We should start encouraging a caring strategy where all the global society turns into the needs of the other and try solving it as our own problem. If we continue with our attitude of everyone with their own problem, we may end up being victims of the same calamity. Works cited Amaro, Helen. Love, sex, and power: considering womens realities in HIV prevention. Am Psychol, 1995. Print John, Iliffe. The African AIDS Epidemic: A History, Jamedn’s Currey, 2006. Print Nolen, Stephanie. 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, Walker and Company, 2007. Print Susan, Hunter. Black Death: AIDS in Africa, Palrave Macmillan, 2003. Print Read More