HIV has claimed the lives of millions of people. I will not bog you down with statistics, because just like the last time you read something about HIV you won't remember. You are probably thinking, 'Not another article about AIDS. Yes its a killer disease, whats new?'
I am currently in an HIV/AIDS training organized by African Missions Health funded by AIDS Relief (thanks to Bill Clinton that exists). It is a tenuous two week training that brings health workers from all over Kenya together to be updated and re-educated about what this disease really means now to sub-Saharan Africa.
In these two weeks we have learned a lot of science and pharmacology about things surrounding this virus. Where it came from, how it progresses, government policies..etc. But I knew all that already. The problem with HIV is that it is not just a disease that you die from. It is a disease so misunderstood and stigmatized that people feel like they die from the point of diagnosis. It tears families apart, throws orphans at the mercy of communities. It judges people without understanding their story. It condemns innocent wives who caught it from husbands, hardworking health-workers pricked by needles, the good Samaritan whose only instinct was to help trauma victims at the side of the road. Anyone.
HIV attacks the old, the freshly born, the rich, the politician's children, the beautiful, the ignorant. It really doesn't care.
28 is a book by Stephanie Nolen which i believe tells the story of AIDS the best way possible. It follows the lives of 28 Africans who are infected or affected by HIV up to 2007, when 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected. Nolen spent six years traveling through Africa to gather the stories. The stories range from orphans, a truck driver, a miner, and a grandmother raising her grandchildren alone in poverty, to college educated patients, military members, clergy, and even Nelson Mandela, whose son died of AIDS.
I personally think this book is excellent. It takes you through a series of emotions; the bitterness of unjust transmission, the joys of positive living, the hope of break-through in research, the chilling reality of death. After turning the last page, it made me think and think and think. If you ever get a hold of this book, read it...especially if you think you know everything about HIV.
I am currently in an HIV/AIDS training organized by African Missions Health funded by AIDS Relief (thanks to Bill Clinton that exists). It is a tenuous two week training that brings health workers from all over Kenya together to be updated and re-educated about what this disease really means now to sub-Saharan Africa.
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| HIV throws orphans at the mercy of communities |
In these two weeks we have learned a lot of science and pharmacology about things surrounding this virus. Where it came from, how it progresses, government policies..etc. But I knew all that already. The problem with HIV is that it is not just a disease that you die from. It is a disease so misunderstood and stigmatized that people feel like they die from the point of diagnosis. It tears families apart, throws orphans at the mercy of communities. It judges people without understanding their story. It condemns innocent wives who caught it from husbands, hardworking health-workers pricked by needles, the good Samaritan whose only instinct was to help trauma victims at the side of the road. Anyone.
HIV attacks the old, the freshly born, the rich, the politician's children, the beautiful, the ignorant. It really doesn't care.
28 is a book by Stephanie Nolen which i believe tells the story of AIDS the best way possible. It follows the lives of 28 Africans who are infected or affected by HIV up to 2007, when 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were infected. Nolen spent six years traveling through Africa to gather the stories. The stories range from orphans, a truck driver, a miner, and a grandmother raising her grandchildren alone in poverty, to college educated patients, military members, clergy, and even Nelson Mandela, whose son died of AIDS.
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| 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolen |
I personally think this book is excellent. It takes you through a series of emotions; the bitterness of unjust transmission, the joys of positive living, the hope of break-through in research, the chilling reality of death. After turning the last page, it made me think and think and think. If you ever get a hold of this book, read it...especially if you think you know everything about HIV.
Very informative, I'll look for that book.
ReplyDeletePlease do Mayab12! :)
ReplyDeleteThe book - 28 - where is it? Pdf copy? This msg is forgotten all the time...keep reposting!! Good stuff
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