HIV and Aids in Sub Saharan Africa :: HIV in Africa

HIV and Aids in Sub Saharan Africa Introduction Sub Saharan Africa has a very serious HIV / AIDS epidemic with millions of its people living with the disease. It has now become a human tragedy in many areas of the world, but most affected is sub Saharan Africa. It is no coincidence that the countries suffering most with HIV / AIDS are also the poorest. HIV / AIDS is now considered to be the single most important impediment to social progress to many countries in Africa .This report will analyse the current situation using up to date sources from articles, books and the World Wide Web. UN Millennium development goals At the start of the new millennium, all 191 UN member states pledged to meet all the UN Millennium goals by the year 2015. These goals covered such issues as, poverty, hunger, education, aid, gender equality, child mortality, pre natal care, environmental sustainability and HIV / Aids. All UN states have agreed to, "Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS." (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). At Present, the HIV prevalence rates are still rising in sub Saharan Africa. The rate is seven ties higher in developing countries than it is in developed countries. Many different schemes are trying to reverse this trend. These schemes include,à ¢? ¦. Oxfam, who work to help ease developing world suffering believe that the only scheme that will help reduce HIV / AIDS in developing countries is to cancel world debt. "Unsustainable debt represents a huge barrier to progress in the fight against HIV / AIDS. Repayments to creditors by some of the poorest countries in the world are diverting the resources needed to respond to current suffering." (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/debt_aid/bp25_debt_hivaids.htm) Oxfam and other similar organisations believe that countries with high prevalence rates could help them selves to solve the aids epidemic if they did not have to meet large debt repayments to the developed world. Concurring the epidemic Unfortunately this disease is not easily concurred. The disease is still today considered to be taboo, making it difficult to talk to