The Health Care Crisis in Africa
Science and the human heart
There is no limit
There is no failure here sweetheart
Just when you quit
- From the song "Miracle Drug" by U2
The Health Care Crisis in Africa
Are you aware that most Liberians are living off 50 cents a day?
Former President Jimmy Carter said at Emory University last night that
Liberia and other African countries suffering from major diseases need
far more medical attention than they can afford. He told the students
that providing shelter, clothing and food on less than two dollars a
day -- not to mention health care. He cited the growing economic gap
between rich and poor as a major cause of problems throughout the
world and encouraged the students to become active as agents of social
change.
Next week in New York City, the Clinton Global Initiative will hold
its second annual conference with former President Clinton, first lady
Laura Bush, Liberia's president, and many other world leaders and
experts to set new goals for alleviating global poverty (Senator John
Edwards and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs have made this a policy priority),
achieving success in assisting all nations with health care issues
(for which Senator Hillary Clinton and former President George H.W.
Bush have offered much public support), mitigating religious and
ethnic conflict (George Clooney and Elie Wiesel's appearance today at
the UN Security Council on the issue of Darfur is just one example of
involvement on this issue), and creating the way forward on energy and
climate change (as former Vice President Al Gore has made a focus).
I am particularly supportive of the alleviation of global poverty and
I am especially concerned - deeply so - about ending senseless,
preventable HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths around the world.
My faith calls me to reach out. My political passion calls me to
inform others about what is happening over the horizon - on other
shores beyond the limit of their sight...and what they can do to help
their fellow human beings. There's no limit to science and the human
heart and we will only fail when we stop paying attention - or lose
hope - or stop trying.
Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is doing her best to keep
her fragile nation stable so that her people can survive, but she has
recently disclosed that she fears that some individuals are bent on
undermining her government. She made recent American news when she got
an uplifting and melodious sendoff after a visit to Georgia Institute
of Technology in Atlanta. Since taking office in January, President
Johnson Sirleaf has carried a similar message of uplift with her on
international visits, trying to drum up investment in a nation that's
in tatters after a 14 year civil war. [source: AP] Some three million
people live in Liberia, but after a decade and a half of warfare there
are only 34 government doctors catering for their healthcare needs.
Fighting has destroyed 95 percent of Liberia's healthcare facilities
and the number of trained government doctors in the country dropped
from 400 to less then 20 at the civil war's end in 2003, according
Liberia's National Human Development Report released recently.
[source: IRIN]
President Johnson Sirleaf had been scheduled to speak as a
representative of her continent at last month's 16th annual AIDS
conference held in Toronto, but she had to cancel her scheduled talk a
week before the conference. Scant information on HIV prevalence has
been available for Liberia. In 1999, it was believed that 50,000
Liberians were HIV positive. In 1993, the official number was 200,000.
Today it's estimated that 3.2% of Liberians are HIV positive. In Nimba
county, Liberia, doctors are seeing full blown cases of AIDS but there
is nothing they say that they can do for them. They can't test them to
see if they have AIDS since the nearest testing facility is a 14-hour
drive away.
Liberia, which lies on the northwest coast of Africa, has more than
its share of health care crises and limited resources to control them.
The country is unlikely to meet most of its Millennium Development
Goals regarding health. South Africa, however has the largest number
of H.I.V.-positive citizens in Africa. Recent reports indicate that
the death rate among women aged 30 to 34 has become 4.6 times as high
as it was seven years earlier and that the death rate among men aged
40 to 44 more than doubled.
Video by Ben Werschkul, photos by Joao Silva for NYT
In a Lesotho village, a mother waits with many others in a clinic
waiting room so her child may be seen by the one specialist who has
come from far away to work in her village. Go to this NYT address and
watch a video titled: Video Feature: AIDS Care in Africa.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour has been reporting on the effect of the AIDS
crisis upon children in Africa. She says that, when it comes to the
children, the world has failed dismally. According to the United
Nations, there are 12 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa
alone, and in four short years that number will skyrocket to 18.4
million. That means AIDS orphans will make up 15 to 20 percent of the
population in some African countries. Children, many who have been
infected with the HIV virus from birth, have to watch their parents
dying of AIDS.
There are as many as one million AIDS orphans in Kenya alone, and
grandmothers are often the only ones left to care for the children.
Grandmothers, many living in poverty themselves, struggle to find
enough food for these orphaned grandchildren. Ms. Amanpour gives an
example of the Stara Rescue School in the Kibera slum of Nairobi,
Kenya, where of the 470 children in the school, approximately 70
percent are AIDS orphans. [source: CNN]
The Stephen Lewis Foundation of Toronto, Canada recently conducted a
highly successful grass-roots gathering of about 300 African and
Canadian grandmothers. African grandmothers who have lost children to
AIDS and are now caring for their grandchildren described their lives
to Canadian grandmothers (very few of whom are dealing with AIDS in
their immediate families). *Stephen Lewis is the United Nations'
special envoy for AIDS in Africa. [source: NYT]
A simple fact that can make a world of difference in stopping the
spread of the HIV virus: In the 10 years since the introduction of
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