Denials about AIDS are damaging the African continent
By Katsina Nwanguma
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com
and NigeriaCentral.com
The first of our fundamental human rights as spelt out in the constitution is the "right to life". Our right to life is currently under threat of total decimation and extinction by a slow, invisible and lethargic killer, AIDS. In short, AIDS, is on a conquering mission.
AIDS, as a serial killer, is out to wipe out humanity. AIDS disastrous presence in Africa calls for more vigilance, strategic plans and mass action. Denying AIDS, pretending it does not exist - imagining it is not a problem and ignoring the negative impact it has on the lives of Africans cannot extinguish or control the virus that has infected over 40 million Africans and already sent over 17 million Africans to their untimely graves.
The alarming rate at which AIDS ravages the African continent calls for a united and spirited fight against this silent murderer. Despite such dire predictions, little is know about the economic impact of the disease, but the anecdotal evidence collected indicates that AIDS is already ravaging all sections of the economy, if unchecked, the economic future of Africans will be bleak.
Dignity is one of AIDS first causalities. AIDS, according to some virologist is defined as the "appearance of one or more opportunistic infections," ignorance about AIDS remains profound, total ignorance is the most crucial reason AIDS is out of control. The stubborn silence about AIDS heralds victory for the disease, and denial cannot keep the deadly virus at bay. The truth is that every body who is sexually active is at risk, most victims do not know how or when they caught the virus, many don't know they have it, those who know do not tell anyone.
The gospel truth remains, AIDS is real. Though it is still surprising that a lot of Africans are still biased about the virus, understanding the modus operandi of AIDS is an additional benefit to everybody. The spread of H.I.V. virus is intractable because it is not written on anybody's forehead.
AIDS has become the biggest producer of bereaed families - and the primary cause of death in Africa. AIDS stimagtised funerals add a sad regular rhythm to African life everyday. AIDS is on verge of destroying the productive forces of our society; it will cost the society 24 &emdash; 26 years of domestic and school age to produce a teacher, doctor or lawyer but it will cost AIDS only six years to destroy them. Children who left when their parents die of AIDS only add another complex dimension to Africa's epidemic, AIDS has created a generation of orphans in Africa.
In Africa, everyday, you heard appalling number of AIDS victims, the number of the dead, the number of who are sick without care, the number walking around already fated to die. They will die of tuberculosis, pneumonia, meningitis - whichever overcomes their ruined immune system first. Sometimes, the people dying of AIDS believe it is just the familiar consequence of their eternal poverty or the handwork of witchcraft. Shame, stigma, ignorance, poverty, sexual promiscuity and political paralysis are the known factors that fuelled the wild spread of H.I.V. infection in Africa. To worsen the situation, to acknowledge that a person is H.I.V. positive in Africa, is to be branded a monstrous being that must be avoided.
According to society for family health, 2.6 million Nigerians are H.I.V. positive. They face discrimination, total rejection and are also shunned by their families and friends. consequently, most of them discontinued their respective occupation due to the stigma associated with H.I.V. the sad story of discrimination against people with H.I.V. is deep and pervasive.
In many developing African countries, the spread of the dreaded H.I.V./AIDS has reached alarming levels. Though, the rate of new infections has reduced in some countries as a result of the concerted efforts of all tiers of government.
Pointedly, in Nigeria, despite the dismal picture painted by the AIDS situation, Nigeria government is yet to achieve a meaningful success in combating the cutthroat virus, all the tiers of government, the church and everyone should help in fighting the virus through preventive measures, people should be encouraged to discuss AIDS freely because silence only fuelled the wider spread of the epidemic.
The Church in particular, should organise different care and support programme to encourage people living with AIDS than stigmatising and ostracizing them in the society. H.I.V. is no respecter of person; anyone can be infected irrespective of status or class. People usually deny AIDS because H.I.V. is linked mostly with sex. Africans feel they must keep private, anything that has to do with sex or even discuss sex openly are pinpointed by health experts as key factors in driving the AIDS epidemic across Africa.
Most of the programmes to save mankind from AIDS are painfully frustrated by a culture that values its dignity over saving lives. A situation where doctors bow to societal pressure and legal strictures not to record AIDS on death certificates. Without proper prevention, the spread of AIDS infection cannot be checked. The consequence of the march on, infection soars, stigma harden, denial hastens deaths and chasm between knowledge and behavior widens.
According to a recent report by the Joint United Nations Programme
on H.I.V./AIDS, H.I.V. positive women in Africa have grossly
outnumbered men. The wife inheritance system in African culture also
helps AIDS scourge to spread at a growing rate. Premarital sex, sex
as recreation, obligatory sex, second family sex, dalliance sex,
transactional sex, sugar daddy sex, multiply partners sex, and
others, are the problems facing the control of AIDS, the nature of
AIDS as asserted by some moralists is to feast on promiscuity. These
are issues that should be trashed before the entire Africans goes
down in a shambles under the weight of AIDS. ARINZE: Will he be
the FIRST
BLACK AFRICAN
POPE?
By Chido Nwangwu
These views were
stated during an interview CNN's anchor Bernard Shaw and
senior analyst Jeff Greenfield had with Mr. Nwangwu on
Saturday November 18, 2000 during a special edition of
'Inside Politics 2000.' USAfrica
The Newspaper voted the "Best Community
Newspaper"
in the 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston. It is in
the Best of Houston 2001 special as chosen by the editors
and readers of the Houston
Press,
reflecting their poll and annual rankings. (USAfrica's
founder Chido Nwangwu, left, with then U.S. Ambassador
Carrington at the U.S. embassy, Nigeria)
Nwaguma is of the department of Creative Arts, University, of Port
Harcourt, Rivers State of Nigeria.
Osama
bin-Laden's goons threaten Nigeria and Africa's
stability
What
has Africa
to do with September 11 terror? By Chido
Nwangwu
Africans
reported
dead
in terrorist
attack at
WTC
September
11
terror and
the ghost of things to
come....
Will
religious conflicts be the time-bomb
for Nigeria's latest transition to civilian rule?
Bola
Ige's murder another danger signal for
Nigeria's nascent democracy.
AFRICA
AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS
Beyond U.S.
electoral shenanigans, rewards and dynamics of a democratic
republic hold
lessons
for
African politics.
CONTINENTAL
AGENDA
Bush's position on
Africa
is "ill-advised."
The position
stated by Republican presidential aspirant and Governor of
Texas, George Bush where 
he
said that "Africa will not be an area of priority" in his
presidency has been questioned by
USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido
Nwangwu. He added that Bush's "pre-election position was
neither validated by the economic exchanges nor
geo-strategic interests of our two continents."
Nwangwu,
adviser to the Mayor of Houston (the 4th largest city in the
U.S., and immigrant home to thousands of Africans) argued
further that "the issues of the heritage interests of 35
million African-Americans in Africa, the volume and value of
oil business between between the U.S and Nigeria and the
horrendous AIDS crisis in Africa do not lend any basis for
Governor Bush's ill-advised
position which
removes Africa from fair consideration" were he to be
elected president. By Al Johnson
LITERATURE
Since 1958, Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" set a
standard of artistic excellence,
and more. By Douglas Killam.
Johnnie Cochran
will soon learn that defending Abacha's
loot is not as simple as his O.J Simpson's case.
Steve
Jobs and Apple represent the future of digital
living
USAfrica
FORUM
IN THE HOUSE OF MANDELA:
A SILLY CRY FOR REPARATIONS
By Prof. Chimalum Nwankwo
Nelson
Mandela, Tribute to the
world's political superstar and Lion of
Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's
burden
mounts with murder charges, trials
Why Bush should focus on dangers facing
Nigeria's return to democracy and Obasanjo's
slippery slide
Acts of Cowardice.
By Jonathan Elendu,
contributing editor of
USAfricaonline.com.
USAfricaonline.com
is
listed
among the world's leading web sites by the international
newspaper, USAToday.
Recent
and continuing crises regarding Sharia in northern Nigeria
and security of lives in Nigeria highlight the other issue
whether the Obasanjo's government has failed to enforce
basic human rights of all Nigerians? See the
USAfrica
Special reports.
Sharia-related
killings and carnage in Kaduna reenact deadly prologue to
Nigeria-Biafra war
of 1967.
Is Obasanjo really up to
Nigeria's challenge and crises?
By USAfricaonline editorial
board member, Ken Okorie. His commentary appears
courtesy of our related web site, NigeriaCentral.com
Investigating
Marc
Rich and his deals
with Nigeria's Oil
DIPLOMACY
Walter
Carrington:
African-American
diplomat who put principles above self for Nigeria
DEMOCRACY'S
WARRIOR
Out of
Africa.
…The
cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but
his voice is the property of the neighborhood. -- Chinua
Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah. An editor carries on
his crusade against public corruption and press
censorship
in his native Nigeria and other African countries. By
John Suval.
September
11
terror and the ghost of things to come....
Shred of all polite, fine talk, the terroristic
events of September 11, 2001, in New
York, Washington DC., and Boston raise many questions. Among
them: Are those wanton terror and wholesale visitation of
murder and mayhem the ghost of things to come into the U.S
as we glide into the so-called new world order? Whose order,
really, is it?... Are those the signatures of a world gone
awry, the continuing cannibalization
of our world, our so-called
civilization?
By Chido
Nwangwu, Founder
& Publisher. See DETAILS