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The message of the World AIDS Conference in Amsterdam is clear: the fight against AIDS is a question of political will. That hinders the work of education and prevention, which invokes family values but leaves only women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and their children, who marginalizes drug addicts and makes homosexuals homosexuals. scapegoats, blocks progress in the fight against AIDS and becomes guilty.
Progress in the fight against immunodeficiency is enormous. They show that it is possible to live a dignified life despite the illness. They show that the spread of the epidemic has slowed through a combination of education, medical progress, global solidarity and responsible health policy. These deadly fears disappear and AIDS becomes a chronic disease, even in the poorest countries
Botswana, an example
The fight against AIDS is a beautiful story of success. By the way: In 2017, 22 of the world's 37 million people infected with HIV have been treated with anti-AIDS drugs. Only four million of them live in South Africa, the country with the largest national HIV program in the world. For the first time since the beginning of the new millennium, the annual number of deaths from AIDS fell below 1 million in 2017.
Especially in Botswana, the second most HIV-infected country in the world (17 %), success in the fight against AIDS has become visible. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of patients on antiretroviral therapy increased from 50 to 84%. The number of deaths from this disease has increased from 18,000 (2003) to 4,000 (2017).
The Russian Negative Spiral
Astrid Prange, Journalist DW
Faced with this balance of global successes, the development at the East is even more painful. Europe and Central Asia. In this region, a number of factors, such as ignorance, religious beliefs, traditions, taboos, discrimination and lack of political accountability, destroy the results already achieved.
Especially in Russia, the development is dramatic. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), about one million people have contracted the virus in that country. Between 2004 and 2017, the number of new cases of HIV infection increased from 50,000 to 100,000. Only about 360,000 people affected have access to anti-AIDS therapy.
Among other things, the Russian negative spiral is linked to the ignorance of elaborate international standards. Where religious leaders condemn immunodeficiency as a "punishment of God" and nationalist politicians claim to "protect families," women who have been infected with HIV through their husbands die. And many children are born with the deadly virus, even though it would have been possible to prevent the transmission of the mother to the child.
The apocalypse does not happen
Where the life of a human This is worth little, treatment of patients with AIDS is not not a relevant problem. Why invest in public health systems, if AIDS continues to be understood as "a homosexual epidemic" (a term used by the famous German magazine Der Spiegel for the first time in 1983)? Why organize education classes in schools and collect donations, if the fault is supposed to be the fault of the sick?
The moment of truth has arrived. The way in which the epidemic is treated reveals not only the dimension of the abilities and humanity of political and religious leaders. It also reveals the human face – or inhuman – of a whole society
Astrid Prange de Oliveira (VT / CP)
Deutsche Welle is the international broadcaster in Germany and produces independent journalism in 30 languages. Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | YouTube |
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