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HIV/AIDS in Africa

By: Carry Vanessa Krakau E Block English

Over 24.5 million people in Africa live with HIV/AIDS in 1999. Some victims are born into this world with HIV/AIDS through their mother and some got it through being either raped or other causes. However in some areas of Africa AIDS decreased, but mostly AIDS is still a major problem in Africa. Furthermore AIDS leads to other diseases too such as TB (Will not talk about how it gets to the TB). People cant inform themselves about this dangerous virus due to the lack of access of getting informed and protection. They also cant really prevent themselves of getting HIV/AIDS due to the lack of sanitation.

24.5 million People live with AIDS in Africa and 2.2 million people have already died of AIDS in the Saharan part of Africa in the year of 1999. This rate is more than 78% of all deaths due to HIV/AIDS worldwide. There are many ways of getting infected with HIV/AIDS. Usually it is sexually transmitted, but there are more ways of getting infected, for instance, sharing needles, taking drugs, prostituting and getting raped. However AIDS gets transmitted through body fluids such as blood, and semen. The word HIV stands for Human Immune Virus and it wipes out your immune system and can lead to deaths since your body cant fight any incoming viruses. In addition you cannot get rid of this virus, thus means once you are infected, you will never get rid of it. However there are strong drugs that can control the virus but cant cure you from it. This just happens because people are either not informed or dont use condoms when having the opportunity to or prostituting etc.

However in Africa many women get infected with AIDS by either being raped or having to prostitute to keep their family alive. Young girls are targets to rape and also adults are main victims. Some children also get infected through their mother. Another point is that human rights get involved with this topic; in a negative way. Womans rights are violated and also children lose the right of getting educated. Both; children and women and everyone else dont have the right of getting schooled or informed about that dangerous virus. As I have already mentioned womans

rights are violated. There is an extreme rate of young girls being raped out there in Africa or having to work as a prostitute. Families get discriminated when they know that the family has AIDS and this leads to harsh consequences. One of them is that children are forced to leave the school when their parents are infected with HIV/AIDS and have to find a job so that they can keep the family alive. Thats how many girls end up being a prostitute. For example in the novel Chandas Secrets, Esther became a prostitute because she had to keep her family alive and eventually got raped and ended up being HIV positive due to this reason. There are also other consequences such as children being orphaned due to their parents death. Furthermore orphans get denied in health cares and schools due to that reason.

People have started trying to make changes and to help those people in need. Mothers in Rwanda have started to write Memory Books for their children, so that if the case is that they pass away, the children can continue to live their lives by having the Memory Book as their life guide.("Themen." Vergiss Mich Nicht. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://www.arte.tv/de/2306740%2CCmC%3D2307146.html>).Also Senegal is now pushing people to use condoms and Kenya has established a powerful skit that should bring the message across for young girls not to have sex. This skit presents two 16 year old girls playing that one of them is thinking about having sex with her boyfriend and her friend trying to warn her of using condoms or that the chance of her getting infected with HIV/AIDS will be very high. Researchers hoped of establishing an AIDS vaccine that should control the epidemic in Africa. (If the vaccine is being effective, it should cause the bodys immune system to wipe out the HIV cells that sit in those individuals.) There has been also some success in Africa, for instance in Uganda the rate of people infected with HIV has decreased from 1/4 people being infected to 1/10 people. Also in 1999 the UN has set up a partnership against AIDS.

In summary, this is what I have stated: people in Africa get mostly infected with HIV/AIDS through unprotected sex, prostitution, rape cases, and the lack of sanitation. Furthermore, children lose the right of getting educated when their parents are HIV/AIDS positive and that young women are targets of rape. However, things have changed positively and negatively. Parts of Africa have lost many teachers that couldnt be replaced. We do have over 620,000 orphans just in Zimbabwe. However, things have gotten better even though it doesnt seem like it right now. For instance the mothers in Uganda started to write memory books for their children and also the number of people being infected by HIV has decreased.

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