Teens With HIV Give Insight into Epidemic in Africa

    During the 1990s, thousands of babies were born HIV positive in the African country of Zimbabwe. Their parents were also infected with the virus and could not receive treatment because antiretroviral drugs were so expensive then.  HIV is the virus that causes AIDS and is deadly if untreated. So, it was surprising when Dr. Rashida Ferrand went to the country to study the HIV epidemic there and discovered that a handful of these babies, now in their teens, were alive. How they stayed alive with the virus for all these years is unknown, since most die after five years without treatment. Their lives have not been without hardship. Most have developed heart and lung defects, thanks to untreated HIV, and many have received little to no education because their parents had died from AIDS.

Zimbabwe; home of the current HIV epidemic http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/zwaf.gif

  
    Dr. Rashida Ferrand’s discovery has also lead to another startling finding; four out of five teens in Zimbabwe who have HIV do not know they even have the disease. This is mainly attributed to the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Parents do not have their children tested because they are afraid, as one health worker describes, “They fear that if the child is disclosed to, he will go about in the streets or at school telling others and other relatives that don't know that the parents are positive they will be stigmatized or discriminated against as a family." This could possibly be what is leading to the shocking rate of HIV in Zimbabwe and other Sub-Saharan countries, which account for about 69% of the disease in the world. And, unfortunately, the children who are not tested can never be treated with antiretroviral drugs, which are now inexpensive and easily obtained in health clinics around the world. The World Health Organization is now pushing for a new campaign, making HIV testing available to teens around the world, citing it as an issue of children’s rights.

Antiretroviral drugs are the inexpensive treatment for HIV  http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2010/11/PillsSpilledShadowy_1.jpg

 
     This article reminded me of the smallpox inoculation debate in colonial Boston. During that time, people argued about whether smallpox inoculation should be accepted, since many believed that it went against God. People concluded from this that it is a person’s own right to choose for themselves what they wanted to do with their health. But clearly the debate goes on today in Africa as parents refuse to get their children tested, even though it’s the children who suffer from this choice, not the parents.  
  
     I completely agree with the World Health Organizations standing on this issue. Children, especially teens, should have access for HIV testing. Especially because HIV is so treatable, and most deaths caused by this disease and AIDS could have been prevented. It angers me that petty social fears are getting in the way of treatment for so many.

    Original article: “HIV Teens Survived Against the Odds” by Deborah Cohen, published March 1st 2014 in BBC News’ Health Section. http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26382673