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I
have never known a world without AIDS.
On June 5, 1981,
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
released the first official report of what was later
named AIDS. I was not yet a year old.
I was in
preschool when researchers in France and the United
States isolated HIV as the cause of AIDS; it was 1984.
Only a year
later, in 1985, at least one AIDS case had been reported
in every region of the world.
It wasn't much
longer —-1987— until the U.S. government added HIV to
the list of “dangerous contagious diseases” that would
bar someone from immigrating or even visiting the U.S.
And this was the same year that AZT, the first effective
drug for the treatment of AIDS, was approved by the Food
and Drug Administration.
I am part of the
first AIDS generation. For us, a red ribbon has always
symbolized AIDS awareness, and universal precautions are
second nature.
But we are the
ones who are dying.
Today, young
people between the ages of 15 and 24 account for nearly
half of new adult HIV infections in the world.
Worldwide, most of the young people living with HIV/AIDS
are female (62 percent). In sub-Saharan Africa, girls
and young women make up 76 percent of the young people
with HIV/AIDS, according the Joint United Nations
Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
The Faces of AIDS
Supported by the ELCA’s Global Mission, I work with the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia AIDS Action
program. With the help of USAID (United States
Agency for International Development) funding, our
program offers community education, outreach and
training, and works to support individuals and families
infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. One family we
visited recently is headed by a widow who supports 22
people, including her 10 children and several
grandchildren. Because she is too young to receive a
government “old-age” pension from her own country, and
none of her children or grandchildren receive social
grants, the family must make its own way by working the
fields. She works in her neighbor’s fields for money or
food, while her children and grandchildren work their
own omahangu (millet, Namibia’s staple grain
crop) fields.
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What do you need to know about HIV/AIDS? |
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Know your own HIV status.
Globally, 90 percent of people who are HIV-positive
do not know that they've been infected. Find out
where to go in your area for HIV counseling and
testing, by calling your local health department or
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
(CDC) National AIDS Hotline, at 1-800-342-AIDS
(2437).
Learn how to protect yourself.
HIV is
transmitted in four body fluids: blood, breast milk,
semen, and vaginal fluids. And there are
four ways to contract HIV: unprotected sex, sex
(anal, vaginal or oral) without a condom with an infected person; from a mother to her
baby during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding; by
sharing needles, knives or other tools for
injections, tattoos, piercing, or traditional
scarring; or through blood-to-blood contact. You can
also find more information from the
CDC Web site or
UNAIDS. |
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Making it to tomorrow
This family and others like them are all too common
in Namibia and throughout southern Africa. Their
situation illustrates the devastating impact of
AIDS on communities. Parents and young adults, the most
productive members of any society, are most likely to be
infected by HIV. Nearly one in
five Namibians, ages 15 to 49, is HIV-positive,
according to UNAIDS. Many times these people are
their family’s sole breadwinner, supporting 10 to 15
family members on one salary.
When the HIV-positive breadwinner becomes too ill to
work, the person returns home to the village to be cared
for by his or her mother or other relatives. The loss of
income forces the family to make difficult choices,
often selling off its meager assets or taking younger
children out of school. Eventually, the sick person
dies, but not before the family’s assets are exhausted.
AIDS breaks down the social structures that have been
used to pass on skills and a sense of identity from
parents to children, further weakening the society’s
ability to withstand such an onslaught. How does one
person offer her children and grandchildren hope to
dream about the future when she spends all of her energy
securing enough food to make it to the next day?
We are all living with HIV/AIDS
AIDS is not just a problem for Africa and the
developing world. It is everyone’s problem. After more
than a decade of stable or declining rates of new
infections, HIV in the United States has begun to
increase again, in what
UNAIDS has described as a “resurgent epidemic.”
Today, more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. are
living with HIV.
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AIDS Today: The global picture
Worldwide, at the end of 2005:
People living with HIV: 38.6 million
New HIV infections: 4.1 million
AIDS-related deaths: 2.8 million
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 10 percent of the world’s
population, but has nearly 64 percent of the world’s
people living with HIV —- 24.5 million.
Three-quarters of all women living with HIV globally are
in sub-Saharan Africa.
In this region, about one in six
(17 percent) of the 4.7 million people who need
antiretroviral treatment (ARV, anti-AIDS drugs)
are receiving it. In contrast, more than 70
percent of people living with HIV in the United States
are on ARV treatment.
AIDS orphans worldwide: 15 million
AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa: 12 million
Namibia, end of 2005:
HIV infection rate in adults ages 15-49: 19.6 percent
UNAIDS Report on the Global
Epidemic, May 2006.
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Most American women who have HIV are infected during
sex, and the biggest danger for women is their male
sexual partners’ high-risk behavior (for example,
injecting drugs, exchanging sex for money, or having sex
with other men). According to
UNAIDS, 2006 Report on the Global AIDS
epidemic, 50
percent of new HIV infections diagnosed are among
African Americans, who make up 12 percent of the U.S.
population. And 18 percent of newly diagnosed infections
are found in Hispanics, who are 14 percent of the U.S.
population.
The combination of race and gender is deadly. “African American women are up to a
dozen times more likely to be infected with HIV than
their White counterparts. AIDS is the leading cause of
death among African American women aged 25-34 years and
ranks in the top three causes of death for African
American men aged 25-34 years." (UNAIDS)
Treatment rates are also much lower among African
Americans than for Whites.
Do Justice
I believe that AIDS is fundamentally a justice issue.
Where one is born, the color of one’s skin, or the
amount of money she has should not determine how she
dies — yet in our world and our own country, this
continues to be the case. People in Europe and North
America had access to life-prolonging antiretroviral
medications nearly eight years sooner than those in
developing countries; the result is that nearly 12
million of the 15 million AIDS orphans worldwide live in
sub-Saharan Africa, many with stories like those I
shared. And HIV infection is still a reason for denying
visa applications to the United States and other countries. As people of
faith, we are called to “do justice, love mercy, and
walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8). Yet all too
often, we have remained silent on this issue. And people
are dying because of it.
I am part of the first AIDS generation. Will our
children be the last? Or their children? How many
generations will follow before an effective cure is
found for HIV, and the virus can no longer ravage our
world? And what are we — you, me, us — doing to bring
that day closer?
Maryn Olson earned a B.A. in political science and
humanities from Valparaiso University. Since November
2003, she has served through the ELCA’s Global Mission
with HIV/AIDS programs of partner Lutheran churches in
southern Africa. Currently, she is serving as the
resource person for Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Namibia AIDS Action.
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