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The AIDS challenge

As another World AIDS Day dawns, we are given the gladdening news that the Government would be allocating more funds for the country's healthcare. Although it is unlikely that Sri Lanka would be saddled with a full-blown AIDS crisis in the near future, we need to marshall all the relevant resources and facilities to take proactive, preventive, measures to ward-off national health crises, such as an increase in the number of AIDS-afflicted persons.

The increased budgetary allocation for health services could go some distance in managing these emergencies.

Right now, although some satisfaction could be gained from the fact that the number of AIDS patients in Sri Lanka is comparatively low, these figures could be highly misleading. As is well known, the AIDS virus has an incubation period of about 10 years and it very well could be the case that we have a substantial number of carriers of the AIDS virus, who are yet to display the symptoms usually associated with the dreaded disease. So numbers could be deceptive and we would do well to take cognizance of the nature of AIDS and its patterns of growth and eruption.

As problematic as the AIDS virus, however are local attitudes towards the disease. In fact, tackling this attitudinal problem among some Lankans is as urgent as fighting the disease medically. To begin with, although spreading sexual promiscuity and sexual immorality are no longer news in this country, there is a marked tendency on the part of some to stigmatize AIDS and to ostracize its carrier. This smacks of blatant hypocrisy if not collective sadism. For all we know, the marginalisation of these patients would only contribute towards lowering their morale and hastening their end.

Given the degree to which Sri Lanka is exposed today to the world outside, AIDS needs to be accepted almost as a fact of life and not as a taboo subject which should be discussed in hushed tones. With Sri Lanka increasingly interacting with the rest of the world and its population mingling freely with other peoples - particularly in the capacity of migrant workers and travellers abroad - the possibility is great of an increasing number of Lankans contracting the AIDS virus, particularly through sexual contact. Such are the sad truths of globalisation.

This is the reason why AIDS needs to be discussed more openly and its victims treated with greater humanity and care. We need to also adopt a more business - like attitude towards the disease.

For instance, it would be advisable for vulnerable groups to undergo the necessary medical examinations routinely to ensure that they are clear of the illness. While the ideal solution to the AIDS scourge is complete abstention from immoral sex, the necessary precautions need to be taken by vulnerable groups to ensure that they indulge in safe sex rather than engage in risky sexual practices. Thus we see that public education on AIDS is one of the most effective means of curbing the disease.

Empowerment through awareness

AIDS sprang upon an unsuspecting world more than two decades ago. Since then, the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has claimed 30 million lives around the world. Forty million people live with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes full-blown AIDS. More than 14,000 people are infected with HIV globally each day.

This year's World AIDS Day (December 1) theme is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS". In his message on the AIDS Day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan pays a glowing tribute to women for their role in combating HIV/AIDS and calls them the most courageous champions in the fight against the planet-wide epidemic. Women now account for about half of all people living with HIV worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, where more than three quarters of all HIV-positive women live, almost 57 per cent of adults living with HIV are women.

It is not very difficult to comprehend why women face a greater AIDS risk. Social inequalities and injustices put them in the path of AIDS. Women bear the brunt of poverty.

They are also subject to sexual violence and abuse. They are also more likely to stay away from education in poverty-ridden countries, thus compounding their ignorance on health matters, including AIDS. Even marriage does not offer protection - in some heavily-infected countries, married women have higher rates of infection than their unmarried peers.

These problems cannot be addressed overnight, but government health authorities, civil society groups and women's groups can spearhead positive change to empower women. Spreading the education net to cover girl children is essential.

Conducting AIDS awareness campaigns for women at village level and through the media is also important. The message should be all about prevention, since there is no permanent cure in any case. Legal and social reforms that give women a better voice in wider society should also be pursued.

Women should also have easier access to healthcare that includes regular home visits by government health professionals. With the poorest countries having the largest numbers of HIV/AIDS sufferers, an international effort must be made to supply generic AIDS drugs at affordable rates. Rich countries must extend their fullest cooperation to the developing world to fight the AIDS scourge.

International research institutions and pharmaceutical companies must also continue the search for an AIDS vaccine and cheaper drugs. This will no doubt be a multi-billion dollar task, but the benefits in terms of lives saved will be immeasurable.

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