exciting, informative, snarky, and very likely fabricated tales of life as an american expat in london

born free campaign, part 1

by Jen at 3:12 pm on 25.07.2008Comments Off
filed under: born free campaign

unicef’s “unite for children, unite against aids” campaign has four primary aims:

- provide treatment for children with hiv
- prevent hiv amongst young people
- protect and support children orphaned or affected by hiv/aids
- prevent mother-to-child transmission of hiv

as part of my commitment to run the royal parks half marathon, on behalf of unicef’s “born free” mission, i’ll be doing a weekly series here to publicise why i feel so strongly that this intiative deserves your support. please consider sponsoring me at my justgiving page, or simply click the widget in my sidebar. a big thank you for anything you can contribute.

born free: unite for children, unite against aids

i clearly remember when i first became aware of aids. i say aids, because we didn’t yet know what was causing it, hadn’t yet named and shamed the virus that would be called hiv. it was 1984, i was about 12 and my dad, who worked with cancer patients and would later become an aids educator, was watching a pbs show on this disease which was causing gay men (and it was only gay men at that time) to contract and die from a rare form of cancer called kaposi’s sarcoma. i had no idea at the time, nor did anyone, that hiv/aids would become one of the largest and most ruthless killers in human history. i only remember that these men were dying in agony, alone.

during the 80s and early 90s, we began to hear about hiv/aids everywhere – activists, politicians, celebrities. there were fundraisers and marches and ribbons and safe sex campaigns. it thoroughly permeated the cultural consciousness. almost everyone became aware of what it was, how it was contracted, how it could be prevented. there were movies made, and public figures speaking out. yet still, people were dying.

remember all that?

then suddenly, about 10 years ago, they discovered the miracle drugs called antiretrovirals.

and now, more than 25 years since the beginning of this epidemic, more than 25 million people worldwide have died of aids – it is the second most deadly epidemic this world has ever seen, second only to the plague. in spite of everything, the numbers keep rising year after year, faster and faster.

so why is it not still part of our everyday awareness?

the answer to that is that in most western countries, people have largely stopped dying. thanks to antiretrovirals, most people today can manage their hiv infection as a chronic illness, not a death sentence.

and we all got on with thinking about other things, like terrorism and global warming.

yet today, there are more than 33 million people infected with hiv, more than ever before. but nearly 70% of people infected with hiv, and 75% of people dying of aids live in sub-saharan africa – the world’s poorest region.

sub-saharan africa makes up only 11% of the world population, but bears the overwhelming majority of infections and deaths. eight countries in this region have hiv infection rates between 15-25%. that’s one in four people. imagine if that were happening in america or europe today?

the aids epidemic we westerners were all able to put out of our minds, has not gone away. in fact, it’s more devastating than ever, with whole generations being affected – it’s just changed location to somewhere we don’t see, and don’t often think about. once again, this disease has shown its penchant for opportunism – preying on the poorest and most vulnerable.

and to an even greater extent, it’s preying upon women and children. *more than 60% of people living with hiv in this region are women.*

and only 9% of pregnant hiv-positive women get the antiretrovirals that can save their babies – because if born with hiv, most of these babies will not live to see their second birthday.

yet every minute of every day, a baby is born with hiv. how do we prevent this?

(more to come in further postings…)

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