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Preventing the spread of AIDS

AIDS CONTINUES TO plague people. About two decades after the first cases were discovered and detected, the disease has foxed the medical fraternity, which is struggling to find a vaccine and eventually a cure. At the moment, cocktail therapies do prolong life, but they are awfully expensive and beyond the reach of most sufferers, especially in some of the poorest regions of the globe such as Africa and parts of Asia, which are incidentally the worst affected as well. Government policies have not been exactly helpful: the South African President even went to the extent of denying the link between HIV and AIDS, and cutting down funds for prevention and treatment. Pharmaceutical companies decided not to be philanthropic, and have done little in cutting down the prices of essential AIDS drugs. And the prevention of the disease has also left much to be desired: a moral stand seems to be the more acceptable approach rather than an emphasis on education and safe sex.

It is here that the supply and distribution of condoms, perhaps the one fairly reliable weapon against AIDS, assumes enormous significance. Global Fund, which has been spearheading the fight against this deadly infection, now feels that big business corporations — like, for instance, Coca-Cola — can be roped in to dispense condoms. Coca Cola can use its extensive network in Africa to distribute them. Till now, the corporate sector has shown very little interest in battling the scourge. Most of the $ 2 billion collected by the Fund has come from Governments. With over 20 million men, women and children already dead from AIDS and with some 40 million carrying the bug, the problem assumes a kind of urgency that the world has not seen. The forecasts are gloomier: another 45 million can be affected by 2010. The United Nations says that at least $ 10 billion a year will be needed to tackle AIDS, with equal attention to both prevention and cure.

Sadly, India — whose nearly four million affected form the largest group after South Africa's — remains complacent in the mistaken belief that an AIDS epidemic will not touch the shores of this nation. India, where most people do not have access to basic medical facilities, where rural health centres are hopelessly under-equipped with sometimes even the doctor missing and where even the most fundamental precautions are not taken (needles are used and reused, screening methods in blood banks are questionable), is certainly sitting on a time bomb that is furiously ticking away. Undoubtedly, a few non-government organisations are doing some work, but the approximately $ 50 million which the country spends on AIDS is absolutely inadequate to check the spread of the virus or alleviate the misery of those already hit. Of course, funds are merely one obstacle. Stress should be laid on safe sex and the use of condoms. The incidence of HIV has certainly dropped in Kolkata's red-light district after sex workers insisted on condoms. Such education must not be confined to these areas alone, and it is imperative that schools and colleges too guide students on healthy living. In this day and age, nobody will listen to moral lectures, and if India seriously desires to stop AIDS, it needs to use its resources and talent imaginatively as much as it requires to attract bigger corporate funding.

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