AFRO-NETS> HIV/AIDS through Unsafe Medical Care (16)

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

HIV/AIDS through Unsafe Medical Care (16)
-----------------------------------------

Dear Edward C. Green and AFRO-NETS colleagues,

While I think it is important to focus on the big issues, it also 
pays to keep some of the little things in mind as well. I hope I did 
not give the impression that HIV-AIDS is caused MORE by multiple use 
of dirty disposable needles in routine health interventions than by 
sex behaviours...... I just do not want the issue of multiple use of 
needles as a way to reduce health care costs to get dropped off the 
healthcare improvement agenda. 

I would like to endorse the importance of leadership in driving be-
haviour change. I do not have statistics to back me up, but feedback 
I get from young people in Africa is that there has been a lot of be-
haviour change..... but the economics of sex get in the way more than 
the official development assistance community would care to admit. 
Young girls and richer and more powerful old men continue to be a 
problem. 

We might have had good results in informing commercial sex workers of 
the risks..... but their clients still remain an untamed problem. 
These clients (truck drivers, migrant hostel workers, soldiers, busi-
ness men) eventually go home to their families and communities...... 
and these people are terribly exposed. Unlike so many situations, the 
rich are at greater risk than the poor..... and the rich (relatively) 
are carrying the crisis into the poor communities.

Success will be accomplished when there is knowledge everywhere..... 
not just in easily accessible hot spots..... but everywhere. My Afri-
can friends are spreading the word in an amazing variety of ways..... 
mostly because it is the right thing to do.... and not because they 
have a paid "contract" to do it. However, it would be great if they 
could get some financial reward for the good works that they are do-
ing.

I keep coming back to this issue...... how do we get the resources to 
help address the crisis into the BEST places to get maximum results? 
Edward Green touched on this subject.... noting that a lot of pro-
gress was made BEFORE sophisticated medical interventions were de-
ployed. My impression is that this might be the key to rapid suc-
cess.... let's put resources into helping Africans get the word out 
in EVERY community in Africa.

Sincerely,

Peter Burgess 
ATCnet in New York
Tel: +1-212-772-6918 / 646-456-6953 
Fax: +1-707-371-7805
mailto:peterb@iitc.safe-mail.net

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