AIDS doesn’t matter?!
IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring
For five days, 20,000 delegates met in the South African coastal city of Durban to take stock of progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, against a background of warnings that recent gains are under threat. The delegates to the 21st Inter-national AIDS Conference in Durban came from more than 180 countries around the world. Most were from the worst-affected regions in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
Nearly 20 million people in Africa are afflicted with the AIDS virus. South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world with nearly seven million affected. One of the senior HIV/AIDS research specialists in South Africa, Professor Jerry Coovadia, presented a paper on the state of the disease in that country. Coovadia said South Africa had made enormous prog-ress in curbing the spread of AIDS and providing treatment to affected people.
But, Professor Jerry Coovadia is optimistic that the fight against AIDS can be won.
South Africa has the largest antiretroviral (ARV) program in the world with more than three million people on ARV treatment. He said there was no doubt that “we will continue to make progress. To really eradicate HIV/AIDS is going to be a long job but it’s not impossible, given the advances in medicine, given the advances in what we know about genes and how genes can affect it, given our advances in the best forms of treatment. Very important, too, is prevention – circumcision, condoms, change in sexual behavior, monogamy and so on. So I think it is possible but it is going to take a long time.”
Yes, there are plans for a new vaccine study. Delegates expressed great interest in the announce-ment made at the conference that promising results from an early safety trial with a potential HIV vaccine had paved the way for a major new study in South Africa. 5,400 volun-teers will take part in trials for the experimental vaccine called HVTN 702 due to start in November.
How about official and in-official figures and numbers for the Philippines?
The alarming situation should be addressed immediately as this may lead to an epidemic. But, the topic AIDS has been, is and seems to remain a hot potato, though only an immediate government intervention is badly needed to stop the spread of AIDS. The Philippines is among the countries who posted dramatic increase of AIDS victims closely being monitored by the United Nations.
AIDS doesn’t know any special season. Not the question “Sex first before love, or love before sex” is relevant. Besides all discussions regarding “pro-and-contra-life”, feminists’ sexual rights and freedom , using contraceptives or observing the safe periods in lovemaking, yes, what partners (married or not!) are doing is practically avoiding pregnancy.
Chasteness and chastity seem to become more and more empty words. Ask the young generation and don’t wonder if you’ll mostly hear a plucky laughter. Not ONLY “pro-and-contra-life-discussions” regarding pregnancy or non-pregnancy are important.
AIDS-tests for married willing couples? So far so good, but how about the most of new HIV/AIDS infections following the UN-study involving heterosexual men, gays, or those men who forced prostitutes to have sex without condoms? How about drug users, who spread the AIDS virus because of using “dirty” injection needles? Worldwide, several immigration authorities require AIDS-tests before entering the country and/or before a continuation of immigration permanent status documents processing.
Especially depressing is still for many fellows the condemnation and ignorance of condoms – the only 99% sure HIV-AIDS protection as several times proved. AIDS doesn’t matter, what a fatal attraction for those people, who love to play Russian roulette.
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