We have to fight or die: HIV & AIDS

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was discovered by scientists in 1985. Since then it dominates every headline on Televisions, Radios, and Internet.

HIV is a transmitted disease that can transmit from person to person through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, semen, breast milk, and vaginal secretions. The most common way of spread HIV/AIDS, is through sexual contact, but it can also be contacted through sharing of needles when injecting infected person, or during childbirth and breastfeeding.

HIV/ AIDS is not just a disease, evident have showed its more than a disease because it damage the body’s immune system and expose the body to illness and infection. It doesn’t only touches the lives of those infected, but almost everybody on our plant.

In South Africa, it became a big problem because of high rate of infected people. Currently South Africa is rated as one of the highest HIV prevalence in the world with about 5.2 million people living with the disease in 2008(Human Sciences Research Council ,2009) it is believed that in 2008, over 250,000 South Africans died of AIDS(Statistics South Africa,2009).

The research conducted have showed that almost one-in-three women aged 25-29,and over a quarter of men aged 30-34, are living with the disease .There is also case of mother-to-child transmission which have a lot of impact on children . This means that infected child is born into a family where the virus may have already had a severe impact on heath, income, productivity and the ability to care for each other.

However, there is a lot of Orphans home which can be traceable to HIV epidemic as the cause. It is estimated that the HIV /AIDS has created half of country’s Orphans. Because a lot of children had lose their mother to the disease and Orphanage become there only hope.

Though South African government have put a lot of measures to manage HIV/AIDS epidemes.HIV awareness campaign, condom use and distribution, sex education, circumcision, HIV testing, treatment for infected people etc. In terms of AIDS- awareness campaign programme, some organizations like Khomanani -caring together has run since 2001 using media to create awareness, Soul City and Soul Buddyz aim at adults and children ,and the Campaign -lovelife operate since 1999 and used media to deliver its massages.

Regardless of government efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa, the disease is still wide-spreading among the youth proofing that nothing have be done to stop it. This administration has gone down deep to look for a way out of this epidemic in our nation. The truth is, it is not the job of government alone, NGOS, Public and Private sectors need to join hand with government to help stop the spread of this deadly disease.

Let’s voice it out; the number of infected people is increasing every day. We are now at a point in our history we have to fight or die.