Why We Should Celebrate This World AIDS Day (December 1)

By Maryamu Aminu

Just as we were about to enter the Christmas season, a time billions of people around the world celebrate and associate with hope, renewal, caring and sharing, came the shocking news that celebrated Hollywood actor, Charlie Sheen, is infected with HIV/AIDS. As, overnight, Sheen became the face of both the stigma and compassion associated with an HIV/AIDS diagnosis, the world forgot that the real face of HIV/AIDS is African. Africa is home to 70% of the 37 million people living with HIV. We have 88% of HIV-infected children and over 90% of AIDS orphans. Now, it may seem odd to contemplate World AIDS day in the middle of a festive season. After all, 39 million people have already died from this disease- 1.2 million of them in the last year- and 5,600 people are still getting infected everyday. However, it is arguable that we do have reason to celebrate this world AIDS Day.

A look back in history shows that, in the year 2000, 6,000 Africans were dying everyday from the disease. The UN Security Council had already convened a meeting that, for the first time ever, designated a disease a threat to global security. HIV/AIDS got its own Millennium Development Goal, albeit an inadequate one, which only aimed to stop the spread of the disease, but made no commitments on how to address those people already infected with HIV. With antiretroviral treatment costing an astronomical $12,000 annually per person at the time, HIV/AIDS had become a death sentence to infected people in Africa. And it wasn’t just ‘Game Over!’ for them. Before HIV/AIDS took their lives, it took their livelihood from being too sick to work, it took their families’ financial security in healthcare and burial costs, it took away their friends and networks from the stigma attached to the disease, and finally it took their dignity, as their bodies wasted away at the end. And just as these families were breaking down from this disease, and creating millions of AIDS orphans, so were African economies, which were losing people in the most productive phase of their lives (25- 40) years and in the form of their farmers, teaches, and health workers etc. AIDS was killing our continent.

In 2003, however, activists and faith groups finally made a breakthrough. They persuaded U.S. President George W. Bush that every person with HIV deserved to be treated, regardless of where they were born. This act of political will and leadership led to a groundbreaking program called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Thanks to PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria, millions of people around the world began to get treatment for free. And scientific data has shown that treatment also helps to prevent transmission of the virus, thus saving millions of lives and slowing the spread of the disease. Today, as the cost of treatment has come down to $110 per person per year, 15 million people and counting have access to lifesaving treatment and African economies are recovering from the hemorrhaging of lost human capital. In fact, South Africa is now manufacturing generic antiretroviral, it has taken over the cost of treatment of its own citizens. And as more HIV-infected mothers receive PMTCT treatment, we will birth an AIDS-free generation of children. On top of this, if more African countries get the number of people on treatment to surpass the number getting infected every year, we will bend the curve of the disease.

So, December is not just the season of goodwill, it is also the season of political will, and there are the glad tidings of comfort and joy. HIV/AIDS is treatable. Even better, with the will of activists and global leaders, that treatment is more and more accessible to some of the neediest people on earth. Best of all, HIV/AIDS is preventable. So go forth and celebrate, for there is hope that we will one day see ‘The Beginning of the End of AIDS.’