FREE ESSAY ON AIDS IN AFRICA

AIDS IN AFRICA

Horrors in the news
Action on AIDS in Africa
Imagine 40 million hungry and destitute orphans in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2010
roaming the streets without schooling and work, prime candidates for the criminal gangs,
marauding militias and child armies that have slaughtered and mutilated tens of thousands
of civilians in countries like sierra Leone and Liberia in the last decade. 
This is the kind of nightmare that prompted the united nations security council to
convene yesterday for an unprecedented examination of health issue- the global spread of
ADIS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where experts predict that more people will die
off AIDS, in the next decade than have died in all the wars of 20th century. The Clinton
administration is wise to use its monthlong leadership of the Security Council to put
this devastating crisis, too often hidden by secrecy and shame, at the top of the word
security agenda.
The sheer scale of Africa's dais epidemic defies comprehension. South of the Sahara, more
than 14 million have died these far. In some countries one in four adults infected, the
majority under the age of 25. In South Africa, which has the highest rate of infection in
the world, 3.5 million people will die in the next decade. The united nations has called
the spread of aids in Africa The worst infectious disease catastrophe since the bubonic
plague, which killed one- third of Europe's population in the 14th century.
For these people aids is not just a humanitarian problem. It is as Vice president Al Gore
argued in a forceful speech to the security council yesterday, a 'security crisis in
attacking the young it saps work forces, undermining economic development and political
stability. Aids have killed disproportionately high numbers of teachers, doctors, and
nurses. The administration is seeking 325million from congress in next year's budget to
combat AIDS abroad, an increase of 100 million from current levels. The added funding
would support education and prevention programs, community based, blood screening and
testing, and special care for orphans. Increased funding is surely welcome, but this
figure is woefully inadequate when measured against the scale of the problem. The u.s.
spends 7 billion a year on aids prevention, treatment and research at home, where 40,000
new cases are diagnosed every year. In Africa 5.6 million new cases appear annually in
countries with the most ill equipped health care systems on earth.
The stigma attached to ADIS has hampered efforts to curb the epidemic. That is may be
where yesterday's Security Council debate makes its most lasting contribution. By giving
this crisis the prominent platform it deserves, the United States is finally providing
the leadership needed to overcome what the vice properly decried as the ignorance and
indifference that lead to infection.
Bibliography
Chicago Tribune