Global AIDS Day 2009: How Much Progress Have We Made?

Posted on | December 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

Mike Magee

Tuesday, December 1st was World AIDS Day, and the big news came out of South Africa. Current President Jacob Zuma, determined to pull the country out of the medical dark ages, announced that HIV pregnant women would now receive anti-retroviral therapy. His predecessor, Thabo Mbeki’s policies and those of then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang (who recommended beetroot and garlic for the disease) are felt to have been responsible for the deaths of 35,000 babies between 2000 and 2005 and the premature deaths of 330,000 adults.1,2

Across the developing world access and early consistent tratment is becoming more the rule than the exeption. And this is reason for hope. But lest we consider the job done, consisder the results of a recent survey conducted by our own National AIDS Fund on perceptions to the disease. As Kandy Ferree, president of the organization states, “Although we have come a long way in the fight against HIV and AIDS, there are more than a million Americans who are currently living with HIV and an estimated 640,000 people with HIV who, for a myriad of reasons, are either undiagnosed, not in medical care or not receiving HIV treatment.” 3

(to continue…)

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One Response to “Global AIDS Day 2009: How Much Progress Have We Made?”

Alvina Cena
January 11th, 2014 @ 12:29 am

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