Posted on 07/03/2002 12:43:11 PM PDT by Drew68
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - The AIDS crisis in Africa can best be compared to the worst wildfire the human race has ever witnessed - worse than the Black Plague of 13th-century Europe. Already more people have succumbed to it than were killed in World War II.
The approximately 20 million Africans who have died from AIDS are but a fraction of those likely to perish in the coming decades, if we who are able to do something - specifically, the United States - continue to do little or nothing.
Domestically, the United States has pioneered research into the treatment of HIV and AIDS. As a result, our AIDS patients survive longer than anywhere else in the world, and many of them are treated with taxpayer dollars.
On the African front, however, the U.S. had provided the least money per capita, among the G-8 nations, for AIDS prevention and therapy - that is, until Congress appropriated $200 million in 2001. Prior to that, there was a deliberate, complete silence in Washington.
Many American and African activists urged greater involvement and a leadership role for our government in the fight against AIDS in Africa. For a long time, no one listened. Long before the Bush administration happened on the scene, the Clinton administration sleep-walked across the international stage. Death in Africa - from genocide, massacres and disease - merited little response.
It's hard to comprehend why our nation and people have remained indifferent for so long despite the evolving AIDS horror in Africa. Some felt that pernicious racism was the best explanation for this indifference. To others, it was merely the indifference of a wealthy people toward the suffering of the poor. It's impossible to comprehend how a civilized people can watch a whole continent slowly disappear. But for whatever reason, we did.
The Bush administration has made some baby steps; the first was when Congress appropriated $200 million in 2001. Even though this was much less than the $1 billion that the U.N.'s Kofi Annan had suggested each G-8 nation contribute annually to combating the AIDS epidemic, it was a step in the right direction.
Only this week, on the eve of the G-8 meeting in Ottawa, the administration pledged another $300 million. It will be disbursed over the next three years. Compared to the enormity of the situation, this is but a drop in a bucket. Senators in the Appropriations Committee wanted more money allotted, but thanks to Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a physician, they failed in their effort.
It's incomprehensible to me that a fellow physician would veto the committee's wishes. As physicians, we have an obligation to patients wherever they are. And if the first tenet of our profession is to do no harm, the second must be to be good Samaritans, wherever and whenever that's feasible. This should give all of us pause, to consider the good doctor's reasons.
All the same, we must be grateful that our government and the American people have began paying some attention to the havoc this deadly disease has wrought in Africa and the rest of the Third World. The hope must always be that once we are engaged, our media might decide to shine a brighter light on what has heretofore remained unchronicled. And hopefully, with a more engaged public, the politician might find it politically possible to spend more of the taxpayer's dollars in a place few Americans know of, much less think about.
For years, some Americans urged our government's greater involvement with Africa. And for many years, we were rebuffed. For many years, we urged that giving aid and comfort to the poor was the best defense for America in an uncertain world. And for long, we were ignored, until Osama bin Laden and his henchmen burst on the scene. It now seems the moment has come to beat the drum a little louder, so the Bush administration can be convinced that a half-billion dollars is a mere token when a great deal more is needed from a nation that can spare so much more.
Pius Kamau of Aurora is a cardiovascular, thoracic and general-surgery physician. He was born and raised in Kenya and immigrated to the United States in 1971.
As physicians, we have an obligation to patients wherever they are. And if the first tenet of our profession is to do no harm, the second must be to be good Samaritans, wherever and whenever that's feasible.
Bill Frist is not voting as a doctor, he is voting as a Senator. And in that case, his only obligation is to respect the constitution.
I agree that the people in Africa need help.
That is why private organizations, celebrities, and the media should be working overtime trying to raise the funds voluntarily, rather than trying to coerce the government to seize more money that they have no right to steal from the innocent by force.
Hardly likely. When the rates of disease are high in these countries the population growth actually accelerates as the woman overcompensate for the potential loss of children.
Even if the rates of AIDS infection were so high as to somehow lower birth rates to replacement levels, due to demographic momentum, the population growth would continue.
You may be right, and parts of Africa may actually be/become competent to handle these issues.
On the other hand, the outcome also depends on wether the virus finds a good platform for further evolution and mutation in the African populations.
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Well then, send them your money.
And hopefully, with a more engaged public, the politician might find it politically possible to spend more of the taxpayer's dollars in a place few Americans know of, much less think about.
I'll be more engaged. I'll send Frist a copy of this with a big THANK YOU.
So now it is our responsibility to bail them out. I think not.
Not hard to comprehend at all. None of our Aids palliatives can be used succesfully without a complex medical infrastructure that does not exist and would take generations to create. By that time there won't be anyone there to need it.
So9
Yeah, I think the 20 million number had been disproven a long time ago. I've read that the USSR alone lost 20 million people fighting the Wehrmacht.
Great site, BTW.
Furthermore, many Africans are suspicious of Western medicine and view things like condoms and the practice of monogomy as "White Man's" efforts to keep black Africans from reproducing.
Shouldn't this have read, "During 8-years under the Clinton Administration, who apologized profusely to Africans for the sins committed by America, who pioneered the politics of AIDS and who professed to be a Third-Way Globalist, the U.S. had provided..."
It is interesting how Bush is ALWAYS named and blamed while the former Rapist-In-Chief never is. What bias in the media? Where? I don't see any...
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