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HIV/AIDS Is Real - Protect Yourself
Photo Taken By: Bev Vycital, Personal Collection
This picture illustrates how the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is very real. The photograph is of a single tree with a sign nailed to it that reads, “HIV/AIDS Is Real, Protect Yourself.” With over sixty percent of the African population living with HIV/AIDS, Africa is considered to be the leading continent in the world with outbreaks of this deadly disease. “AIDS imposes its heaviest toll on developing countries. Of the 42 million people who are infected today, the overwhelming majority are in the poorest nations of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that has been hardest hit. The overwhelming majority of the thirteen million children who have been orphaned by AIDS live in that region.” Africa has had two major HIV/AIDS epidemics. “The first took place in the 1980’s and remained largely restricted to homosexual men; the second, much larger one took off in the 1990’s and spread rapidly among heterosexuals.” There are various reasons why HIV/AIDS is so common in many African communities, some of these reasons include not using protection, and the belief that the AIDS virus is caused by poverty rather than HIV, the belief that social status is the cause of the disease. “Socioeconomic conditions are also known to be important determinants of the spread of HIV infection.” Although this deadly disease is literally affecting hundreds of thousands of people every year in Africa there has been no real cause for concern until recent years. HIV/AIDS has severe affects on the people of Africa. It significantly lowers life expectancy, the disease is being passed down from generation to generation and there are not enough resources in the country to try to maintain the spread of the disease. As noted in The Children of Africa Confronts Aids there are many consequences to be faced by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “AIDS influences political actions because it constrains state resources, changes the nature of political communities and reconfigures how individuals view their rights and responsibilities with those communities.” Children are also expected to face the ramifications caused by the disease affecting their family members and/or communities. Often children are left to care for themselves and their siblings when the parents die because of complications of the virus. Children are subjected to watching their parents slowly die and are both mentally and physically affected by this. “Children may live with long periods of uncertainty and periods of crisis as they watch parents slowly become sicker and more incapacitated.” There is no doubt that Africa as a whole is affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has an effect on everything from politics, education, children, health issues and the socio-economic status of the citizens of Africa. Perhaps if there was more concern about this growing health issue in Africa then the spread of this terrible disease could be significantly decreased in the next generation. Often it takes the help of other countries like the United States to help fight the battle against this deadly disease. It’s the responsibility of countries like our own to provide the necessary resources to these under-priviledged countries to make them aware of what needs to be done to keep this crisis under control. If the people of Africa would take the advice and help of other countries then their fight against AIDS/HIV could be managed. However, if everyone would take the advice nailed to this single tree, then life that many citizens of Africa are leading could be significantly changed over the next hundred years.
Arvind Singhal and W. Stephen Howard, _The Children of Africa Confront AIDS_ (Ohio: Center for International Studies Ohio University, 2003), 14.
Brian G. Williams and Eleanor Gouws, _The Epidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in South Africa,_ The Royal Society (2001): 1077.
Joe Cohen, _South Africa’s New Enemy,_ Science (2000): 2168.
"Solutions to the Problem of Heath Care Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa,"_Hearing Before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, United States Senate,_ Anne Peterson, Doctor, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004), 15
Bev Vycital,_Unknown,_ HIV/AIDS is Real - Protect Yourself, 2007, Bev Vycital Personal Collection, Clarkesville, Georgia.
For More Information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_in_Africa
HIV/AIDS Is Real - Protect Yourself
Photo Taken By: Bev Vycital, Personal Collection
This picture illustrates how the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is very real. The photograph is of a single tree with a sign nailed to it that reads, “HIV/AIDS Is Real, Protect Yourself.” With over sixty percent of the African population living with HIV/AIDS, Africa is considered to be the leading continent in the world with outbreaks of this deadly disease. “AIDS imposes its heaviest toll on developing countries. Of the 42 million people who are infected today, the overwhelming majority are in the poorest nations of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region that has been hardest hit. The overwhelming majority of the thirteen million children who have been orphaned by AIDS live in that region.” Africa has had two major HIV/AIDS epidemics. “The first took place in the 1980’s and remained largely restricted to homosexual men; the second, much larger one took off in the 1990’s and spread rapidly among heterosexuals.” There are various reasons why HIV/AIDS is so common in many African communities, some of these reasons include not using protection, and the belief that the AIDS virus is caused by poverty rather than HIV, the belief that social status is the cause of the disease. “Socioeconomic conditions are also known to be important determinants of the spread of HIV infection.” Although this deadly disease is literally affecting hundreds of thousands of people every year in Africa there has been no real cause for concern until recent years. HIV/AIDS has severe affects on the people of Africa. It significantly lowers life expectancy, the disease is being passed down from generation to generation and there are not enough resources in the country to try to maintain the spread of the disease. As noted in The Children of Africa Confronts Aids there are many consequences to be faced by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “AIDS influences political actions because it constrains state resources, changes the nature of political communities and reconfigures how individuals view their rights and responsibilities with those communities.” Children are also expected to face the ramifications caused by the disease affecting their family members and/or communities. Often children are left to care for themselves and their siblings when the parents die because of complications of the virus. Children are subjected to watching their parents slowly die and are both mentally and physically affected by this. “Children may live with long periods of uncertainty and periods of crisis as they watch parents slowly become sicker and more incapacitated.” There is no doubt that Africa as a whole is affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has an effect on everything from politics, education, children, health issues and the socio-economic status of the citizens of Africa. Perhaps if there was more concern about this growing health issue in Africa then the spread of this terrible disease could be significantly decreased in the next generation. Often it takes the help of other countries like the United States to help fight the battle against this deadly disease. It’s the responsibility of countries like our own to provide the necessary resources to these under-priviledged countries to make them aware of what needs to be done to keep this crisis under control. If the people of Africa would take the advice and help of other countries then their fight against AIDS/HIV could be managed. However, if everyone would take the advice nailed to this single tree, then life that many citizens of Africa are leading could be significantly changed over the next hundred years.
Arvind Singhal and W. Stephen Howard, _The Children of Africa Confront AIDS_ (Ohio: Center for International Studies Ohio University, 2003), 14.
Brian G. Williams and Eleanor Gouws, _The Epidemiology of Human Immunodeficiency Virus in South Africa,_ The Royal Society (2001): 1077.
Joe Cohen, _South Africa’s New Enemy,_ Science (2000): 2168.
"Solutions to the Problem of Heath Care Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa,"_Hearing Before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, United States Senate,_ Anne Peterson, Doctor, (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004), 15
Bev Vycital,_Unknown,_ HIV/AIDS is Real - Protect Yourself, 2007, Bev Vycital Personal Collection, Clarkesville, Georgia.
For More Information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_in_Africa