Moral outrage over HIV/AIDS

Caroline Fielding talks about the injustice at the heart of the HIV/AIDS crisis

Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs delay the progression of HIV to AIDS, allowing those living with HIV to live relatively healthy lives

Take a look at the facts: 42 million people are currently living with HIV. 8000 people die each day from AIDS related illnesses. There are 12 million AIDS orphans in Africa. In the developing world 7.1 million people are in desperate need of treatment.

The statistics are shocking, but the truth is, they don’t mean anything until you actually think about them. The scale of the problem is so vast that it’s difficult to really comprehend, however, perhaps the first step is to begin to understand why the problem is still so huge and what barriers are standing in the way of a solution.

The first injustice is this; there is no longer any reason that HIV should mean an immediate death sentence. Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs significantly delay the progression of HIV to AIDS, allowing those living with HIV to live relatively normal, healthy lives. ARVs have been available to the rich world since 1996. However, those who are suffering most at the hands of the disease are the very same people who are denied the treatment, through biased trade laws, the constraints of weak infrastructures and poverty.

The second tragedy is that even if antiretroviral treatment was readily and equally available, a treatment can only be effective when diagnosis has occurred. Unfortunately the stigma surrounding HIV prevents many getting tested and ultimately denies them a diagnosis. This discrimination is particularly targeted towards women, who in many societies are perceived as the main transmitters of HIV and are often blamed for their condition. In India there are reported cases of husbands abandoning the wives they have infected, leaving them to face the disease, and the discrimination which comes with it, alone. Women, who are in many parts of the world already at a social and economic disadvantage, struggle to access treatment and support.

The Global Fund, is a fund established in 2002 by the G8 and Russia to help fight malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and is responsible for 20% of all foreign aids towards HIV/AIDS plans. However, the fund continues to fall short of its pledges and part of Oxfam’s work is to lobby for the increased effectiveness of the Global Fund and to ensure that the G8 stick to their promises. Oxfam also works to educate communities about the disease and to make sure that discrimination doesn’t create a barrier for accessing treatment. It is only by combating basic issues of poverty, education, human rights and resources that there will be a long term solution to the AIDS epidemic.