Allow me space to congratulate the Government of Namibia for spearheading the campaign that aims to eradicate the spread of the incurable virus (HIV) that leads to the disease (AIDS) that is playing the destructive role of killing our people.
Let me also commend the government for ensuring that the infected people are provided with the HIV-related services such as voluntary counselling, testing and supply of antiretroviral drugs as well as those that prevent the virus from being passed from an infected mother to an unborn baby. One of the main challenges that derail the medication process is the non-availability or non-supply of nutritious food to patients.
Many of the infected and affected people are the poor and vulnerable members of our society, many of whom are unemployed, which leads to them being discriminated against and isolated by their families, relatives and societal members. Apart from the good things we are doing to curb this dangerous health hazard, I have a problem with the kind of message we are sending out.
When Member of Parliament, Ida Hoffman, was speaking at the launch of the U-Khai/Yelula project, she said, “while HIV-AIDS is claimed to be non-discriminative in terms of the spectrum of the population it affects, it can be termed a poor man’s disease”.
Is HIV a disease or a virus? If we say HIV/AIDS is a disease, then we are telling the people (youth) to avoid the disease, but the virus – which is contracted mostly through sex – is ignored. The figurative message of many HIV/AIDS campaigns in our people’s minds is: A very sickly and thin person.
If we say “Let’s fight AIDS now!” it is like we are shouting down those who are sick. The AIDS-related patients only need our moral support to live a stigma-free life and motivation to seek medical support. Our energies and efforts should focus more on aiming to see an HIV-free nation. Once you eradicate the virus, there will be no AIDS disease. What we need to fight, vigorously, is the stealthy, secretive and invisible enemy number one: the HIV virus! Our main focus must be to prevent new infections. All the role-players must opt for the best preventive measures.
Which is the best method – abstinence, having a faithful partner or the use of a condom? We are now stranded between various beliefs. We can only make a difference once our people understand the respect for human dignity. That means, knowing their constitutional rights and responsibilities that go along with people behaving reasonably – socially, politically and morally. Reliable reports have it that in Namibia the following is the situation about the pandemic:
-About 200 000 people are living with HIV, of which 56 percent are women;
-At least 15 000 patients have succumbed to full-blown AIDS;
-There are more than 85 000 AIDS orphans.
What we need to curb is the deadly virus!
Martha N. Amalenge, Windhoek