Christine Chun-Week 4 Response

As the UNAIDS article shows, HIV/AIDS is a large issue in Sub-Saharan Africa. The development field seems to associate the virus with underdevelopment and billions of dollars go into HIV/AIDS treatment. This is not necessarily wrong, but these readings reveal that although the environment of developing countries may increase the chances of HIV/AIDS, it still does not excuse the fact that in general, Africans are very sexually active consensually. According to Pisani, how sex is viewed in a culture, and not poverty, is the real issue. She gives examples with countries like Bangladesh and Guinea who are developing countries, but yet do not have a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate such as South Africa. Reading Chapter 4 of her book made me realize that I too have generalized all African countries of having high rates of HIV/AIDS because they were poor. She also does a great job of explaining the basics of how HIV is spread. Points from Pisani that are worth noting are that HIV spreads in Africa mainly through concurrent relationships, that strong leadership is needed to stop HIV/AIDS, and that cultural stigmas on the virus increase the spread of the virus.

I believe that strong leadership is the solution in reducing the spread of HIV; Leadership not only in a nation’s government, but also in individual households. Leclerc-Madlala’s article uses an example where a political leader in South Africa was acquitted of charges of rape in 2007. This example and other cultural scripts tell the younger generation that “Sexual violence is sometimes a way to demonstrate passion or caring” and that it is the woman’s responsibility (or fault) for how a man behaves sexually. In addition, similar to Pisani’s example of Noerine, I had a professor in Kenya who talked about how sex, condom use, and HIV/AIDS needed to be more publicly addressed, but when we asked him if he talked about these things with his own children, he said he felt too embarrassed to. It also makes me mad how religious groups caused the banning of sexual education in many schools in Kenya. They say abstinence is the best way, but they do not even talk about that to students. Isn’t it better to have people use condoms then for them to get HIV/AIDS or any other STI? If parents do not talk about these issues and schools do not also, then how can girls learn that having a “sugar daddy” is not safe, and where will boys learn that they should get circumcised (if their society doesn’t normally)? If African countries truly want to see HIV/AIDS disappear they must have stronger prevention initiatives like Uganda’s Zero Grazing, where “partner reduction and faithfulness” are encouraged. There must also be a large availability of condoms to the general public, and girls need to learn that they have the right to be respected and boys need to understand that. Unfortunately in many parts of Africa, “no” means “yes” to men. This information and the benefits of condom use must be engrained in people’s minds for change to happen on a society’s views on HIV/AIDS.

As for funding towards HIV/AIDS, money towards antiretroviral drugs is essential, but I also agree with Obama that more money should be spent on other diseases that will save more lives for less money. More people, especially children from the slums, die from diseases like cholera, diarrhea, and malaria than HIV/AIDS. Plus if more money and effort was spent on prevention of HIV/AIDS (which is far cheaper than treatment programs), then less people would have the virus and more money could go into improving the overall health systems in countries as Levine and Oomman suggest. As I discovered in Kenya, the HIV/AIDS treatment programs were excellent, but hospitals did not have enough doctors to deal with problems. My friend who was a medical intern told me how one person came in with his back cut and bleeding, but that there was no one qualified in that hospital to fix him or an ambulance to take him to another hospital. Therefore, they had to wait for an ambulance to come, but instead of bandaging him or giving him something to help with the pain, the other medical workers went on a lunch break. That person’s life was just as important as someone with HIV/AIDS, but this example shows what the country and donors would rather invest in. The best way to deal with this is to work on preventing HIV/AIDS, so that more funding can go into other health concerns.