AIDS in Africa

On the 16th July 2008 Washington announced the verdict of a vote for the spending on a program for the prevention of AIDS in Africa. The 80-16 vote has ensured a spending of almost $48 billion on the life saving and ground breaking program in Africa. This increase is over triple the current expenditure on the program which for the past 5 years has been around $15 billion. This expense will be spread out over a period of 5 years again.

When the program first started in 2003, the people in Africa on antiretroviral drugs totaled around 50,000. Today that number has risen to 1.7 million people receiving medical drug therapy to slow down the HIV infection potentially adding another 20 years to their life span. It has also over seen the birth of 200,000 babies born from HIV positive women being completely HIV free.

There are still many issues between this program and American citizens. The program is threatening to their own economical balance and many people are wondering where this money will come from. Upon release of this news in popular American newspapers, many have voiced the opinion that this breakthrough in funding will have a negative impact on American citizens. There is also concern that this money will be better spent on cancer sufferers within the United States where just over 500,000 people die each year. However this shows you just how underestimated AIDS really is. Despite the efforts of World AIDS Day to encourage the flow of information about AIDS and HIV, people in developed countries such as the US and UK are still very much unaware of the impact of AIDS in Africa.

Unlike Cancer, which in certain cases can be treated and removed, AIDS currently has no life saving treatments, only drugs to slow it down. In 2007 1.2 million people died from AIDS, 33.8 million people are currently coping with HIV or AIDS, and around 2.5 million people are newly infected each year.