HIV and AIDS in South Africa

AIDS is a very serious illness. Lots of people don't know the difference between AIDS and HIV, so I tell you short: If you get the pathogen of the human immunodeficiency virus, you are HIV-positive, but you aren't ill definitly. The problem is that you have the HI-virus in your body and there's the risk to get ill. If you are ill, you have the "Acquired Immune Deficieny Syndrome", short AIDS.

AIDS is such dangerous, because it destroys your immune system, so you aren't protected against illnesses like pulmonary disease or diarrhoea which kill you normally than. There isn't a medicine which can heal you up, the only way is to take medicine for the rest of your life.

At an estimate of 2004 21,5% of the South African population live with HIV and/or AIDS. 310,000 South Africans died of AIDS last year. That means that every fifth person in South Africa has HIV and/or AIDS! The reason for this high number is the bad or better called not existing clarification. The government hadn't done anything against AIDS the last years. Especially the president Mbeki (till 2008) did a lot to understate the huge problem; he said that the medicine against AIDS doesn't worked, he understate the danger of HIV, he even dennied the connection between AIDS and HIV!

But since February 2007 there's a new health minister and the fight against AIDS have been

started. The government and the society worked out a plan, the "National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS and STIs for 2007- 2011" (short NSP). Unfortunately the financing isn't sure, but it's great that the government recognizes the problems of HIV and AIDS now.

In 2008 Mbeki ends his carrer in the government of South America (what a luck!) and since 2009 there's a new health minister: Aaron Motsoaledi. He said for example: "If we stop anything, we will just reverse all our gains." In my opinion it shows that there's a change in the South African HIV and AIDS politic, I hope it will go on!

We can see this change also in the lifes of the South African. Condoms aren't as unpopular now as they had been in the past; The problem was (is it also now) that a lot of people aren't interested in HIV, AIDS and their riscs. The reason of this could be that there isn't medicine for half of the HIV-positive people because of the poverty in South Africa. If a (poor) person knows his HIV status, it doesn't matter anything, because he hasn't the money for medicine or condoms. Perhaps he even doesn't say anything to anyone because he's embarassed. I think this behaviour is grounded in the HIV and AIDS politic of the last years: "We don't want any problems, so HIV and AIDS isn't a problem. It's a taboo subject."

Last but not least a list of important facts:

-The national transmission rate of HIV from mother to child is approximately 11%.

-Over 20 % of the South African live with HIV and/or AIDS

-Ill parents can't work, so families have big financial problems (have to go hungry!)

-Half of the South African's orphans parents are died of AIDS

-In a few provinces the life expectancy falled down from 63 to 47 the last 6 years

Pictures from:

http://www.takegreatpictures.com/Shooting%20a%20UNAIDS%20Mission/10136

(HIV-infected mother with child)

http://southafrica-for-dummies.com/category/health/