HIV and AIDS in Africa - Essay Example

ESSAY HEALTH PROBLEM: AIDS in Africa Sociology October 29, TABLE OF CONTENTS l. The problem 3 2. Origin of the problem 4 3. Solutions tried 5 4.Why the solutions have not worked 9 5. Conclusions 11 6. References 11 AIDS in AFRICA HIV/AIDS is a global problem. It is one of the most devastating health problems that caused death to many peoples of the world. Africa is the mostly affected region in the world. It constitutes 11% of the world population and home to 60% of people in the world living with HIV. The severity of the problem cannot be just set aside since every year, millions of African died pointlessly of a disease that is otherwise avoidable. The World Health Organization’s report showed AIDS as the number one killer disease in African region. Mortality among the child was very high at “14,620,000 and at adults very high at 49,343,000 in 2001” (“African Region Health Report”). Figure below show percentage of HIV prevalence among 15-24 year olds in selected sub-Saharan African countries in 2001-2003. As shown, there is higher incidence of HIV cases in women. This becomes a problem because of the high probability of transmitting the disease to the babies due to pregnancy. It is said that due to numerous infectious diseases plaguing Africa, economic development is hard to achieve thus the African region lags behind other region in terms of human development. According to the “African Health Report”, and based on its 2002 estimates, “72% of deaths in the African region is caused by communicable diseases such as HIV/aids, tuberculosis, malaria, respiratory infections, other infectious diseases, and complications of pregnancy and childbirth”. This is coupled by other socio economic problems of the region, extreme poverty, and lack of education. It is regrettable but these deaths are preventable. Solution to these problems has become a big challenge to the African States in particular, and to the world, in general. The origin of the problem AIDS in Africa according to studies, started with chimpanzees. A conclusive evidence based on a comprehensive 10 year study found a strain of “Simian Immuno deficiency virus in a number of chimpanzees in Cameroon was a viral ancestor of HIV that eventually caused AIDS in humans” (“History of HIV & AIDS in Africa’). There was no other strain of the same kind found in chimpanzees from other parts of the world, so it was concluded that the strain came from Africa. “The History of HIV…” cited an unconfirmed rumor that HIV was brought by an infected individual who travelled through the river from Cameroon to Congo, and spread it through sexual network. It was speculated that HIV was carried in the Eastern part of Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda) in 1979 and reached the epidemic level in early 1980s. Report said that HIV in West Africa is due to “labor migration, high ratio of men in the urban population, low status of women, lack of circumcision, and the prevalence of the highly transmitted disease” (“History…”). It was believed that sex workers played a big part of its transmittal in East Africa and that about 85% of sex workers in Nairobi were affected with AIDS in 1986. In the ”History…” the first African country to be heavily affected with AIDS is Uganda in 1980s. It further spread into other areas sparing the Western Equatorial parts simply because the distance and difficulty in travelling made it uneasy for sexual network to penetrate. Spread of disease was facilitated by war between tribes, truck drivers, soldiers, migrants, traders, and military personnel who engaged with sex trades and spread it on their travel routes. In the early 1980s, people were not aware of HIV and thought of it only as an infectious virus. Because of lack of information about HIV, people were unaware that they were infected by the virus. The initial reaction of the government was to disclaim and hide it. Even the World Health Organization claimed that AIDS in Africa was not their first concern during its initial days but then admitted their mistake afterwards. Life was hard for people tested and found an HIV/AIDS carrier because they were discriminated upon and despised by the society. (History…”) Solutions that have been tried There are several solutions tried by the government and other world organizations. Some have been successful while some did not materialize for various reasons. For purposes of discussion, a compilation of the solutions and why it did not work is described below. These solutions are lifted from the report of the World Health Organization on the “African Regional Health Report” 2012. When the spread of AIDS disease in Africa was discovered, the initial efforts done by the government to control the problem was prevention. This constitutes advising people to change their sexual behavior, abstaining or delaying first sex, having only one partner or to use condoms(“History…”) Other nations helped by providing debt relief and increasing aids to African countries. WHO, in “African Regional…” accounts that help came from Group of 8 industrialized countries in July 2005 and the package relief of 148 members of the World Trade Organization. This trade package approved in the Doha Development Round is “to abolish tariffs on African products paid by wealthy countries so that African farmers can compete internationally.” The organization saw the need to extend help to the poor countries of Africa, to lessen human sufferings by improving health conditions, and to give way to the future progress. However, in doing so, WTO would like to be assured that funds are used effectively. According from report gathered from “African Regional…”Abuja Declaration was made on April 21, 2001 wherein African leaders in the City of Abuja in Nigeria declared the continent under the “state of emergency” due to HIV/aids epidemic so that resolving this health problem would be their government’s top priority. As part of the covenant, each of African state governments had to pledge 15% of their budget to AIDS problem. Further to this, and on the same year, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was formed whose objective is to “eradicate African poverty, promote sustainable growth and development, help countries in Africa take a more active part in the global economy, and improve the status of women.” To NEPAD, the disease is a stumbling block for Africa’s economic development and damaging to the “social fabric” of the continent. As part of its strategy, they called on the African governments to honor their 15% pledge of support for health care. United Kingdom’s Commission for Africa in March 2005 called for more investments in education, rebuilding of health systems, and the scaling up of services to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Commission, gathered together by the United Kingdom is composed of public servants, private enterprises, and political leaders in Africa. This Commission, which lasted only for one year, sought for more investments, more infrastructure, reduction of corruption, bureaucracy, and reduction of tariff in Africa to boost trade to lift poverty of people(“Africa Regional…”) All targets are for poverty reduction, health care, and providing education. Set as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals(MDG) of 2000, targets expected to be achieved by 2015 are to reduce poverty by half; providing primary education; reducing the number of children’s death by three-quarters; reduction of maternal deaths by two-thirds; reversing the epidemics of HIVS/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. The MDG’s objective is to unite a world-wide initiative to help the poorest countries in the world. Seeing that pregnancy causes many deaths, Safe Motherhood was launched in Nairobi, Kenya in 1987. Initially, maternal health care was treated as a family matter, but later on it was considered it as a global health agenda because of the increasing pregnancy related sickness and deaths. As a result, the International conference on Population and Development in Cairo Egypt in 1984 urged all countries to address issues on maternal rights and child health. The UN conference resulted in a recommendation of the need to provide sexual and reproductive information to protect pregnant women, to criminalize violence against women, and to condemn the harmful practice of female genital mutilation. Towards this, WHO “Making Pregnancy Safer Initiative” commenced in 1999. The objective of the program is to ensure that mothers and infants have timely access to the care they need (“African Regional…”) Other efforts were also initiated by world organizations and African community. UNICEF and WHO jointly sponsored Managing Childhood Illness initiative in 1990 whose objective is to reduce the growing incidence of illnesses due to preventable diseases was implemented in 44 states out of 46. The Community funded scheme in Mali and Mauritania provided 37 out of 57 health centers trained staffs to deliver babies, to perform emergency obstetric surgery as well as to provide them emergency kits containing anesthetics needed by mothers. Funds for this are shared by the development partners, the government, community, health associations, and patients who give a small donation. Called Obstetric Package, Mauritians have a health insurance that covers antenatal,, delivery and postnatal care. In this scheme, family contributes only $0.26, and the rest is shared by the French Development Aid, WHO, and the Nouakchott District (African Regional…”) Finally, hope for medications came in the form of Antiretroviral Drugs ARV. Antiretroviral drugs are medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV. This drug is intended “to lower the level of HIV in the blood and postpone the development of opportunistic infections, allowing people to regain a good quality of opportunistic infections.” (African Regional…”) ARV medicines are said to be effective in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV drug pregnancy. However, ARV programs have been criticized due to affordability. According to A. Otudola who did a Study on ARV IN Africa, ARV is an initiative of the World Health Organization to have "universal access to antiretroviral therapy for all living with HIV/AIDS". The target of the initiative is "to have 3 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) on anti-retroviral treatment by 2005". Over 70% of the worlds population of PLWA is reportedly in Africa (UNAIDS). Why Solutions Have Not Worked Despite several efforts and initiatives some did not work well or projects were not fully implemented for a variety of reasons. The first government initiative of Prevention of Safe Sex through condoms was contradicted on account of religious beliefs and teachings (“History…”) It seems that the African governments reneged on their pledge of 15% budget support as agreed in Abuja Declaration so that efforts of NEFAD was needed to remind them of such promise. Other efforts did not do well too as WHO report of “African…” said the UNDG was not fully successful, there was poor governance, national poverty traps, particularly found in the African region, presence of “pockets of poverty within regions”, and political neglect. With reference to Safe Motherhood program, solutions did not fully work because of insufficient education, weak health systems, illiteracy, and women’s low status. There was inadequate coverage of maternal services due to poverty, weak health systems and shortage of skilled workers. “African Report” cited that only 43% of birth in the region was delivered by skilled attendants, the rest were done by neighbors, or by the mothers themselves. Obstetrics Package is found to be limited as Mauritania is only one of the five countries who joined the program. There is a need to spread it to other countries as well. In pursuing the Millennium goal it is observed from the report that treatment of these diseases becomes difficult because of cost, climate and geography, political turmoil, and lack of funding. Climate and geography made the treatment of malaria too difficult to handle. Cutting down of trees to prevent malaria is against environment while water and sanitation required a larger scale of study. Meanwhile, the recourse to sleep under a mosquito net, and to filter the water they use and drink by a simple cloth to avoid Guinea-worm disease is considered crude and inadequate. Related to this, the review from WHO Bulletin 90, October 2012 reported that Africa still has the highest neonatal death rate in the world, and highest maternal mortality ratios worldwide. Appraisal said the problem of basic sanitation still exists; only 58% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa have access to safe water supplies; non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and are on the rise; and injuries are still the top causes of death in the Region. The introduction of Antiretroviral Drugs (ARV) in the early stages had become controversial because pharmaceutical companies could not agree on a uniform low pricing. Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines CAEM (2009) cited too many people are unable to reach for these drugs because of higher price. The patent problems and competition from manufacturing countries like India and Brazil made lower pricing more difficult. This once again provides a problem where drugs could be out of reach. Since pricing is a barrier for treatment and funding for HIV/AIDS is stagnating, CAEM made an appeal for global support. CAEM cited a shortfall of at least at least US43 billion to fund existing programs of 2010. A. Odutola questions the ARV program arguing that the long term sustainability of the program is doubtful without donor. He said Africa is a poor country and that it could not afford to put counter funding to procure ARVS from the multinational companies even at reduced costs. Conclusion Africa should not be left alone with its problem. Several initiatives have been exerted to alleviate the sufferings of its people. The aim of the United Nations and the World Health Organization to scale it down to zero remains to be a big challenge to the world. It will take time before this objective is achieved because there are other contributory factors that need to be addressed along with HIV/aids. The prevalence of this dreaded disease is somehow contained because people are now informed and educated. People afflicted with this disease not only in Africa, but in other parts of the world, are now fearless in coming out in the open. In some percentage, discrimination is lessened, and people treat them with sympathy and compassion because now, there are available cures that will lengthen lives of those afflicted. References Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. July 2009. HIV/AIDS Treatment in Developing Countries: The Battle for Long Term Survival has just begun. Retrieved 08 November 2012 http.//www. mstaccess.org. “History of HIV & AIDS in Africa” http://www.avert.org/history-aids-africa.htmIn Otdula, A. 17 March 2004. ARV Drug Treatment in Africa. Retrieved 08 November 2012 http://academic.udayton.edu/health/06world/africa04.htm “The African Regional Health Report”, 2012. The Health of the People. World Health Organization Retrieved 03 November 2012 http://www.who.int/bulletin/africanhealth/en/index.html World Health Organization Bulletin Vol. 90, October 2012 The African Regional Health Report: The Health of the People. Retrieved 8 November 2012 http://www.who.int/bulletin/africanhealth/en/index.html Read More