HIV/:Who is Responsible?

[Guest guest]

HIV/AIDS: Who is Responsible?

Bangalore, November 29, 2001: In 1981, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

and the fatal disease it causes, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS),

emerged in what then appeared to be a series of discrete epidemics among certain

populations in specific parts of the world. Today, the virus continues to spread

through much of the world at a pace that outstrips efforts to control it. The

HIV/AIDS pandemic now affects men, women and children in nearly every populated

region on earth. A disease that began as a public health crisis affecting

millions of people has now evolved into a force that threatens the social,

economic and political development and stability of entire nations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) began organizing a response to HIV/AIDS in

1986 and launched a global strategy to fight the disease a year later. Since

then, the world health community, governments and other international agencies

have contributed significant technical and financial resources to support the

battle against HIV/AIDS, but these resources have not been sufficient to meet

the continuing global challenge. Everyday, the number of HIV infections

increases and the pool of resources available to fight the disease diminishes.

In 1991, WHO reported twelve million HIV infections worldwide; today the total

has increased to 36 million. Ninety percent of these infections will have been

sexually transmitted, most as a result of heterosexual intercourse. Specific

behaviors, common in all parts of the world speed the spread of HIV. However,

the vast majority of infections has and will continue to occur among people in

developing countries least able to mount the programs needed to prevent and

control the disease.

HIV/AIDS has attacked the developing world at a time when decades of investment

in social and economic development is beginning to yield results. In India,

precious gains have been made in child survival rates and adults are living

longer and healthier lives. In other areas, a better-educated work force has

increased the potential for foreign investment and the expansion of

manufacturing and services sector industries. HIV/AIDS threatens to halt or

reverse many of these gains; in fact it already has in some areas. According to

the latest report to Congress on the USAIDS Program, AIDS has become the leading

killer of children in some developing countries. The disease has already

severely impacted the work force in many countries and has led to the withdrawal

of planned foreign investment in others.

In India, economy is fragile, technical resources are limited and governmental

infrastructure, policy positions and service systems are weak or unstable. We

already know, for example, that no health care system currently existing in

India or the developing world will be able to manage or provide care for the

continually increasing number of people infected with HIV or suffering with

AIDS.

HIV/AIDS also batters the supporting social structures of a nation. Extended

families are common in India and individuals are dependent upon these families

for many aspects of their well being. Although such communities have a long

tradition of caring for the ill, the enormous financial burden and too-frequent

stigmatisation associated with caring for people with AIDS have ripped families

and communities apart. Those families, who do not turn over the care, of the ill

to strangers face increased poverty as they lose the income of both the patient

and the person who cares for them.

Fear, lack of knowledge, limited resources and weak institutional capabilities

have combined to facilitate the spread of HIV in the developing world. Although

the world may have been slow to understand and respond to this disease and its

future implications, much important work has been done and many successful

disease interventions have been tested. The world health community has

recognised the need to temper fear with knowledge, defined the resources needed

to impact the epidemic in specific countries and developed interventions to

prevent the spread of HIV. However, currently available resources fall far short

of what is needed to apply what has been learned on a large enough scale to

effectively impact the pandemic.

ative efforts are needed. No nation or international organization can

successfully shoulder the burden alone. The resource gap must be filled through

the collective efforts of the public and private sectors at local, national and

international levels. Government, private enterprise, religious institutions,

private voluntary organizations, international service organizations,

community-based groups and private philanthropy must assume the responsibilities

of leadership and seize this opportunity to improve the human condition.

Ashok K. Rau

The Freedom Foundation-India

Bangalore, Bellary, Mangalore, Udipi and Hyderabad

Source: www.youandaids.org

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Mr. Ashok K. Rau could be contacted at freedom@... or

ashokrau@...)

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