AFRO-NETS> World Health Report: Years of Healthy Life... (5)

[Emmanuel Otolorin <eotolorin@jhpiego.net>]

World Health Report: Years of Healthy Life... (5)
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Garance,

Phew!! There will be very few people reading your piece that will not 
perceive the anger behind the writing. Your satirical response made 
very interesting reading. Anyone failing to recognize the role of 
poverty in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in developing countries has not ad-
dressed a major root cause. 

Poverty breeds economic migrants who leave their families, urbaniza-
tion, poor governance, violence and illiteracy which culminates in 
high risk sexual behavior including prostitution, sex with casual 
partners, limited access to health care, unsafe injection practices, 
limited access to condoms etc. How does one stop a commercial sex 
worker from her high risk behavior if one cannot provide an alterna-
tive means of livelihood? How does one stop a health provider from 
re-using contaminated needles and syringes if one cannot provide 
sterile disposable alternatives? Behavior change communication mes-
sages must be backed up by provision of resources to address these 
unmet needs. Granted some of the poverty is self-imposed by poor gov-
ernance but this is only a small proportion.

'Dipo

Emmanuel 'Dipo Otolorin
mailto:eotolorin@jhpiego.net

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