'What Will Happen To My Children When I Die?'

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19246/

 

'What Will Happen To My Children When I Die?'

By Stephen Lewis, allAfrica.com

Posted on July 15, 2004,

http://www.alternet.org/story/19246/

 

Editor's Note: The following is a statement by Stephen

Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, made

at the opening of the 15th International AIDS

Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

 

Every UNAIDS Biennial Report invariably contains

riveting items of revelation. For me, this year's

report, Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis,

issued but a few days ago in conjunction with the

International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, is no

exception. The revelation, which I found to be both

startling and terrifying, is that in Africa, 75% of

all those infected, between 15 and 24 years of age,

are young women and girls.

 

I well recall the last conference, two years ago in

Barcelona. At the time, the UNAIDS (Joint United

Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS) report, and a

monograph released by UNICEF, put the percentage at

roughly two-thirds of 15-24 year olds. That we should

now be dealing with 75% is almost beyond belief.

Everyone knows of the higher rates of infection of

young women and girls over young men and boys, but

that the ratio should have reached 75% surpasses

understanding.

 

The absolute figures are shocking. According to the

latest statistics, there are 6.2 million people

between the ages of 15 and 24 infected in Africa. It

means that 4,650,000 women and girls of that age are

now living with the virus.

 

But that's just the tip of the contagion. The report

also says that young people account for more than half

of all HIV infections world-wide; more than 6,000

contract the virus every day. Those numbers would

obviously be higher for Africa, but even at the 6,000

figure level, the evidence suggests that well over a

million young women and girls, between 15 and 24, are

being newly infected annually.

 

This is the true nightmare intersection of youth and

gender which the current report reveals. Neither Dante

nor Kafka have penned so bleak a landscape. We're

losing huge numbers of young women and girls in

Africa. It's a pandemic within the pandemic.

 

And let it be said that despite all the concentrated

attention on gender, this report provides yet another

bracing statistical jolt: Of the 38 African countries

for which data is available, every single one – I

repeat, every single one – has infection rates for all

women between the ages of 15 and 49 that are higher

than 50% of the total. While it is true that women

constitute 57% of infections overall, one would have

thought that some countries, somewhere, fell below

50%. That's simply not the case.

 

It's worth remembering that the 5 million new

infections last year were the highest ever recorded on

an annual basis. The implications for Africa are

clear: Amongst the 15-24 year-old women and girls,

prevention is simply not working.

 

The factors leading to vulnerability are endless in

number: the power imbalance, men over women, in

matters economic, social, cultural and above all,

sexual, dooms young women and girls; intergenerational

sex; transactional sex; sexual violence (I have been

told that of the first 50 women and girls presenting

themselves to a new rape crisis center in

Khayaleitsha, Cape Town, 48 were under the age of 16);

early marriage (a phenomenon, the fatal implications

of which are only now being examined); limited value

of the " ABC " strategies (Abstain, Be Faithful, Use

Condoms); absence of property and inheritance rights;

removing girls from school to tend to sick and dying

parents; the entire burden of care; the absence of

knowledge about transmission; the tiny percentage who

have access to Prevention of Mother to Child

Transmission; stigma and discrimination ... the list

goes on ad infinitum. It amounts to the definitive

contemporary chronicle of gender inequality. And it's

demonically lethal.

 

And there's yet another implication germane to WHO's 3

by 5 target. These young women must have special

access to treatment, which will not be easy, given the

second-class status conferred upon them in virtually

every choice that's made within family households. But

if young women and girls represent 75% of infections,

they must have equivalent, and disproportionate access

to treatment. The report uses an excellent phrase:

Access must be based on the " epidemic's sexual

distribution. "

 

If I may be personal for a moment, I want to say that

there are two refrains which I've regularly (and

painfully) heard over the last three years traveling

in Africa, always coming from young women with their

children in tow: " What will happen to my children when

I die? " and " You have drugs to treat people in your

country; why can't I have drugs to stay alive in my

country? "

 

We're at the opening of this conference. There will be

many discussions of these issues over the course of

the next several days. I would hope that before we

reach the finale, there is some concerted governmental

and activist response to which we can all

.... an emergency agenda to galvanize the world.

 

We now have the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS,

and the recently released UN Secretary-General's Task

Force report on Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern

Africa to lead and to inform the debate. It must

result in urgent action. In Africa, we're losing the

heart of a generation of women and girls. It makes a

mockery of the goal of an " AIDS-free " generation.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights

reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/19246/

[Guest guest]

I would like to point out that in Africa, Aids " diagnosis " is

generally done without testing. The figures are derived by extending

what testing is being done - normally on pregnant mothers who come to

a hospital - to the general population.

 

HIV tests, even when they are done, are *highly* unreliable. In fact,

manufacturers say they have been made to keep the blood supply safe,

not to diagnose HIV/AIDS. The tests come out positive with some sixty

unrelated health conditions, for instance, colds, malaria,

vaccinations and ... *pregnancy*!

 

More in the following article: Aids Test is not Proof of Infection

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/06/13/aids_test_is_not_proof_of_infect\

ion.htm

 

and also: HIV AIDS - A Tragic Error

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/04/12/hivaids_a_tragic_error.htm

 

Sepp

 

 

 

 

>http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19246/

>

>'What Will Happen To My Children When I Die?'

>By Stephen Lewis, allAfrica.com

>Posted on July 15, 2004,

>http://www.alternet.org/story/19246/

>

>Editor's Note: The following is a statement by Stephen

>Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, made

>at the opening of the 15th International AIDS

>Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

>

>Every UNAIDS Biennial Report invariably contains

>riveting items of revelation. For me, this year's

>report, Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis,

>issued but a few days ago in conjunction with the

>International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, is no

>exception. The revelation, which I found to be both

>startling and terrifying, is that in Africa, 75% of

>all those infected, between 15 and 24 years of age,

>are young women and girls.

 

 

 

--

 

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition.

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