HIV/AIDS: Just only ABC and the battle is won
By Nhial Titt Nhial*
Mar 3, 2006 — I told a friend of mine last time that I would quit writing commentaries on political issues and concentrate on writing on issues like HIV/AIDS, its awareness and prevention campaign, environmental conservation, developmental issues etc.
“Oh dear, do not quit, you have been giving an articulate political analysis.” My friend said.
“People wrongly take writers and journalists for political aspirants. They do not differentiate between writers and politicians.” I said. And the rest is history.
Indeed HIV/AIDS, environmental issues, developmental issues to name but a few are the most pressing needs of our time but we give them less consideration and spend much time on political issues. For that matter, the purpose of my comment this time will touch on the worst phenomenon of modern time – HIV/AIDS.
AIDS pandemic is described as the worst problem in the history of health. In fact, human beings have been having great problems since time immemorial but there had never been the worst problem like AIDS. People say that AIDS is similar to war but it is worse than war in that when armies fight, it is mostly the men who are killed but AIDS kills women and children. AIDS kills people in the prime of their life. It makes our society sink deeper every day below the poverty line as it kills the most productive members of our society. It sends millions of our young people to their grave earlier in their productive years leaving our world in abject poverty.
The worst thing is that AIDS looks as if it is a curse to the poor nations especially African nations. For only two decades, AIDS has been spreading across the continent of Africa like a wild fire engulfing human race in most of the nations of the sub Saharan Africa. These nations which are artificially poor but naturally rich have little muscle to fight the disease. Poverty is a great factor in promoting the spread of the virus. Poverty induced prostitution is one of the major factors that promote the virus among the poor nations. The rich western world is promising everyday to help in the fight against the virus but there is no sign of fulfilment of their promises. Antiretroviral drugs which reduce the load of the virus can not be afforded by the poor nations. Many people of good will have been calling on the western governments to cancel debts owed to them by the third world nations as an effort to combat HIV/AIDS. It will be a positive step if the rich nations heed to this call. Stephen Lewis, the UN HIV/AIDS special envoy to Africa and the writer of the book, “Race Against Time” and an iconic figure in the fight against AIDS in Africa, has been in the frontline in urging the rich nations to cancel debts owed to them by the poor nations as an effort to help fight AIDS. In one of his campaigns, he said, “All I know is that, every time I go to Africa, I am shaken to my core.” This tells us the extent to which humanity is suffering.
Africa should rise to the challenge. Africans need more than just a mere rhetoric to fight AIDS on the continent. We need to be in the front line more than the external forces to combat AIDS. We have the ability and the means to fight this war before the outside world can reach us. It needs both political will from our governments and the will from an individual to fight it. South Africa is said to have been hit most. Uganda has been the success model in an effort to reduce the number of infection. Others should follow suit. Southern Sudan was reported sometime ago to have the lowest rate of HIV virus. The reason has been the fact that the region has been isolated by war for decades.
In Southern Sudan now, the story is different. The rate is increasing and is feared to be increasing more as the refugees are coming back from the neighbouring nations where high rate of virus has been prevalent. The people of Southern Sudan and the marginalized areas should prepare themselves for an other war. This is a war unlike our war of freedom. This war confronts all of us in lonely front. It does not only need a set strategy from the government but also from individual. We need to have behavioural change and self regulation. For us to triumph over it effectively, it needs nothing more than the use of ABC as simple as that. But we need to be careful not to add D in our letters. Just ABC and then battle is won. What matters is how we will use our ABC letters without adding D.For that reason, I will add more to the best of my knowledge.
ABC is an approach adopted in HIV/AIDS battle frontline. In fact, these are not the normal first letters of English alphabet taught in our first days of school. They take a short time to learn but they take away more than our life if not implemented. “A” stands for abstinence which in the real sense is a sex fasting. It is not joking but a real sex fasting which is not strange to zero grazers, abstainers, nuns and monks but it will sound strange to the immoral spoilers of time honored norms of our forefathers. For the liberals, not actually liberal politicians but sex liberals, it looks as if I am condemning your practice which you mistakably call civilization in order to glorify it. For the conservatives, you will passionately agree with me. In fact, I am always conservative in matters that are concerned with life and always liberal with fundamental matters that need to be incorporated into the society for its betterment. In this piece, I have both liberal and conservative views which I need us to share and be practised so that we put an end to this evil threatening the existence of mankind.
“A” states that we should abstain from making sex until we get married. But before we tie the knot, we need to come out of the shell of shyness and be honest to ourselves. I mean out of pretence and being open to each other with our anticipating partners and go to the clinic or hospital for testing to make sure that both of us are free from virus. Wow! This sounds liberal to those conservatives who call cheating and hypocrisy our culture. I mean our cultural conservatives including myself. Ladies and gentlemen, indeed it needs bravery and openness. Let us be conservative when it is necessary and liberal when it is necessary especially when it is a matter of life saving. There is nothing in telling our sweethearts to go to the clinic together and get tested. It is a matter of life and death. These issues should be open to debate if we are to save our world.
Having done testing with our spouses, let us bring in the use of our letter “B” which stands for “Being faithful to each other.” No sex hunting again, no sex loitering. Zero grazing is the basis. Let us take oath that we will practise it until death parts us.
The use of letter “C” in the approach is what I do not strongly recommend. It stands for the use of condom. If you fail to adhere to the principle of “A” and “B,” you can use condom. Abstinence & Being faithful to our spouses are the most effective methods we can use to protect ourselves from contracting HIV.
A recap of the main items:
– Practise abstinence before getting married i.e. do not make sex until you get married.
– Be open and honest to each other and go for testing with your partner before you get married and marry each other when you are sure of each other. Make it as part of the normal routine and feel free to do it.
– Practise faithfulness i.e. being faithful to each other not to make sex with other partner apart from your married spouse.
– Use condom when you can not manage abstinence and being faithful each other.
– Let us make sure that our failure to adhere to the ABC principle brings in “D” which stands for death as a result of contracting HIV that suppress our body immune system leaving us vulnerable to more opportune diseases and results into a condition known as AIDS.
* The writer is a Sudanese resident in Canada.
He can be reached at [email protected]