AIDS is Rooted in Poverty

Many people assume that if one talks about AIDS, he or she has it. Consequently, others are wary of talking about it. But for someone whose life was given a new meaning by the dreaded disease that continues to kill people worldwide, being afflicted with AIDS has become an inspiration for fighting for other people’s lives.

BY AUBREY STA. CRUZ MAKILAN
Bulatlat  

Congolese Yvonne Kavuo, 44, has been helping people with human immunodeficiency disease/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) for a decade now. She became more committed with her advocacy when her younger sister died of AIDS in 1998.

Kavuo’s advocacy

Kavuo started coordinating churches’ programs on HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, Congo and Uganda from 1990 to 1994. It was her first time to see people dying in big numbers and in such a painful condition. In those times, an average of six people die in Uganda due to HIV/AIDS.

Kavuo felt she had to do something more. She went to Kenya to pursue further studies while, at the same time, working as a public health worker. However, a phone call almost crushed her heart one day of early 1998. On the other end was her younger sister telling her she was positive of HIV/AIDS.

Though a graduate of education specializing in teaching English, Kavuo pursued postgraduate studies. She earned master’s degrees in Public Health and Planning after her sister’s death in September 1998.

Kavuo then joined the UEM in an assembly in Namibia in 2002.

A strange disease

Kavuo described HIV/AIDS as a strange disease. A person with AIDS (PWA) knows that he or she is going to die within a short time. But instead of knowing how it is transmitted, Kavuo said that many people just fear the disease and remain ignorant of how they can acquire it.

She told Bulatlat that there are people in Africa who still believe that mosquito bites could transmit the virus. Worse, some thought of curses.

According to the UEM, the main cause of AIDS is economic poverty, where insufficient education and poor chances of getting a job can force women into prostitution. The lack of perspectives, it said, is the reason why many young people have a series of sexual relationships and consequently underestimate the dangers of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Other reasons are social taboos; stigmatization and discrimination; gender inequality where wives in patriarchal societies have little influence on their husbands’ lifestyle, particularly sexual conduct; and inadequate medical care which includes the use of un-sterilized equipment.

There is no cure for AIDS up to now. Available drugs only boost the immune system that could extend life up to 20 years. Kavuo however said that these drugs are too expensive for the PWAs especially in poor countries. Other governments and institutions had to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) but with interests.

HIV treatment must last for a long time or perhaps forever.

One such treatment is the reverse transcriptase inhibitors which stops the deadly virus from taking over the white blood cells called CD4 lymphocytes. But this medicine cannot work if the CD4 takeover has already happened. Another is protease inhibitors that works later in the life cycle of HIV. However, side effects of these medicines are common. A patient might have nausea, bloating, diarrhea, headaches and even kidney problems.

UEM mission

The UEM aims to create an atmosphere of openness and acceptance, overcome the stigmatization of people living with AIDS, open minds to propagate all means of preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS including condoms, and break the silence that prevents people from speaking openly about HIV/AIDS. It also develops all aspect of prevention, care and support systems.

Kavuo revealed that there are still hospitals in Africa that do not tell the results of AIDS test to PWAs. Because of this, UEM works to ensure that patients not only receive results but also prepare them to live with it. In Africa, UEM established Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centers in densely-populated areas and in big hospitals that offer services for diagnosis of the HIV/AIDS. Of 100 tests, at least 12 are positive, said Kavuo.

In Africa, UEM’s 3^rd year anti-AIDS program is implemented in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Cameroun, Tanzania, Namibia and Botswana. In Asia, UEM will have its coordinator on the program by January 2005.

Kavuo stressed that since there has been no cure for the disease yet, the immediate action needed is prevention. Bulatlat

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