AIDS in Africa essays

AIDS in Africa essays Seventy-four percent of the AIDS population is found in Africa. One in ten adults living in Africa is now infected with HIV, and in certain places in southern Africa, at least one in four adults are infected. Not only does AIDS affect the immediate victims, but in Africa, it frequently is passed on to the children. An estimated 1,700 new infections occur each day. The infection rates among newborns are high. Furthermore, AIDS orphans many children. Rape victims have a high risk of testing positive for HIV, which is especially sad for a country where such a crime is widespread. Even in mutual relationships, the females often would like to use a sort of protection; well males do not wish to do so. When a female condom was available in a few parts of Africa, they disappeared in frenzy. Many problems contribute to poor conditions, and subsequently, AIDS is a problem for every one of Africas citizens. (MSNBC) For a while, part of the problem was lack of education, but programs such as the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (a charity dedicated to raising money for AIDS vaccine research, patenting the rights and distributing the vaccine at low cost) are currently working on improving that. IAVI is dedicated to trying to implement programs that will be able to distribute the AIDS vaccine as soon as one is found. The worry that access to treatment may not be available quickly where it is most needed is founded in past experiences. For instance, the Hepatitis B vaccine, which was first patented in the early 1980s, is still not available in many poor countries. Therefore, many believe that an AIDS vaccine will sooner protect people in rich countries than those where the epidemic is becoming totally out of control. With current vaccine research employing expensive new technologies, initial prices of new vaccines against AIDS may be significantly higher than those for Hepatitis B. If those lower cost drugs are not...