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AIDS & HIV in Southern Africa |
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The highest percentage of the Sub-Saharan African population infected with HIV are in the countries I visited on safari: Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe - up to a third of the adult population are infected in some areas!
Read the Report from "Secure the Future" Secure the Future is an initiative of a company in partnership with the African nations of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland - to find sustainable and relevant solutions for the management of HIV/AIDS in women and children, and provide resources to improve community education and patient support. |
Sign on the Namibia / Botswana border (see border photo)
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CONFERENCE IN ZAMBIA TO STOP THE SPREAD OF AIDS
LUSAKA 11 Sep 99: Thousands of people united in the fight against AIDS have flocked to the Zambian capital, Lusaka for a conference seeking to stop the spread of the epidemic. Some 3,000 organisations, researchers, politicians and ordinary people whose lives have been altered by AIDS will attend the one-week conference, which opens on tomorrow. Organisers say the aim of the conference is to examine the social and economic impact of H.I.V.-AIDS in Africa as well its impact on women. Participants will also look at support and care for people living with AIDS and seek ways of raising awareness and acceptance of the dangers of H.I.V-AIDS. 11.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died of AIDS - the equivalent of the combined populations of New York City and Los Angeles. One quarter of those deaths were among children. That toll, representing 83 percent of all AIDS deaths worldwide, has been exacted in a region that accounts for just one tenth of the world's population. And sub-Saharan Africa is home to an estimated two thirds of the 34 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Namibians Cautioned Over Rapid Spread of AIDS PANA Wire Service (08/11/99); Ikeh, Goddy Mandiangu Nsugu, Karas Regional Medical Officer, has warned Namibians that they must change their sexual behavior if they are to effectively combat the spread of HIV. Speaking at the Ecumenical AIDS Prayer Day on Sunday, Nsugu noted that 17 percent of Namibians have HIV. Nsugu said that 90 percent of Namibians know how HIV is transmitted, yet few have changed their sexual behavior.
Botswana to Give Allowance to AIDS Sufferers
The AIDS Foundation of South Africa is a funding agency seeking to identify and develop initiatives which reduce the impact of AIDS in under-resourced communities.
What makes AIDS a unique disease is the fact that it infects people at the peak of their productive years, at a time when they would not normally require medical care: the incubation period is long and the condition is fatal. Many of the people infected with HIV will be skilled and educated persons in the workplace and this will impact on productivity and training. The shocking facts about AIDS is that through the disease, the legacy of Apartheid lives on. AIDS knows no social boundaries, but there are socio-economic and political conditions which contribute to its spread and people's survival. It thrives in environments of poverty, rapid urbanisation, violence and destabilisation. In South Africa the particularly vulnerable are those lacking information, resources and control over their lives - namely the poor, those living in rural areas and women.
UNAIDS in Namibia - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (dated 1996)
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