Debate over HIV/AIDS epidemic yet to be heard
Dr. Mark Dawson, 18th annual Burdick Lecture presenter, contrasted UNAIDS publications that note successful remediation of the epidemic with stark historical facts.
In its latest study of 63 countries, UNAIDS found, “Among young people in the fifteen most severely affected countries, the rate of new HIV infections has fallen by more than 25 percent.”
However, many of the most affected demographics throughout sub-Saharan Africa have stalemated in their battle against HIV and AIDS. According to the UNAIDS report, nearly 60 new HIV cases are detected per day in Lesotho, a small country no larger than South Carolina.
Dr. Mark Dawson chair of history at Western New England College presented the history of HIV and AIDS to a packed audience Thursday, Nov. 18. The topic, dubbed the perfect storm focused on southern Africa having the highest percentages of HIV and AIDS cases in the world.
“Southern Africa stands out and it “begs the question” why is that the case,” said Burdick presenter Dr. Dawson.
UNAIDS or The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS is an initiative born from a unanimous UN decision to halt and turn back the AIDS epidemic by the year 2015, a goal set by the 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.
“Following intense negotiations on the text among member states, the final 2006 Declaration provides a strong mandate that will help move the AIDS response forward, particularly with regards to scaling up towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support,” stated a UNAIDS press release on the 2006 declaration.
Dawson was brought to Alfred University for the 18th Annual Burdick Lecture to present his decade’s worth of findings entitled, “The Perfect Storm: HIV, Migrant Labor and Socio-Economic Change in Southern Africa.” His vocation in history presented a challenging perspective to those that emphasize biological remedies as the only means of alleviating the epidemic.
As Dawson stated, the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be traced back to European colonization of Africa; the rise of the mining industry throughout what is now known as the mushroom, which envelops sub-Saharan Africa; both premises to an argument claiming there needs to be more than medicine behind a comprehensive solution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The SIV virus is the genetic variation of HIV that shows itself in non-human primates such as chimpanzees and is tens of thousands of years old. Dawson explained that the most likely way this variant was transferred from chimpanzees to humans is through hunting. If an African hunter were to kill a chimpanzee, the animal would need to be disemboweled on sight; a process that would leave the hunter inherently exposed to what could have been infected blood. Here, according to Dawson, is the first insight into how cultural norms have worsened, or in this case caused the AIDS crisis.
Colonization of Africa by European nations exacerbated the issue by creating cities of cultural upheaval. Forced to trade fiat money in colonial cities for necessities such as food, water and clothes, Africans found themselves dependent upon European vocations for currency enough to support themselves. Following the discovery of precious metals and diamonds across southern Africa, one of the only and surely the most common jobs was to work as a miner. Mining locations developed into towns and then into cities.
Dawson claimed that cities across Africa continue to provide young men with an outlet unseen in their more traditionally rural lifestyles. In light of this the area which UNAIDS notes as that most sorely affected by AIDS is misunderstood by the organizations most intent upon helping those demographics.
“Indeed, if we do not respond with urgency and resolve, we may well find our vision of a thriving nation slipping from our grasp,” stated President of South Africa Jacob Zuma.
“Sub-Saharan Africa’s epidemic continues to outpace the response…mitigating the epidemic’s impact in the region requires immediate steps to elevate the priority given to HIV prevention and to match prevention strategies with actual needs.”
Two things individuals combating the prospect of HIV need most are often cultural sensibility and the liberty to ensure one’s health. Unfortunately, antiretroviral therapy does not include the liberty of a woman to say no to her husband, or gas money and a car to go to a clinic, nor does it address socio-economic constructs, or the industry of sex.
Resolve against despair has been the most positive combatant on behalf of those influenced by the AIDS epidemic, yet fractured perspectives on the issue have brought traction to division at a time when, perhaps, more individually attentive approaches are needed.
As there are more perspectives to be addressed, World AIDS Day 2010 may be seen as a hopeful horizon point between the red of dawn and midnight’s assured rest.
