Low income communities of color, whether in Africa, the Carribean, Asia or in your own neighborhood, are feeling the impact of AIDS. The United Nations Global Conference on AIDS was recently held in New York to respond to the AIDS crisis. Three thousand people from all over the world attended both to decry the actions of U.S. corporations and promote solutions for prevention and treatment.
AIDS respects no borders
AIDS impacts the most communities with the least access to health services. The effect of AIDS is not limited to Sub-Saharan Africa or third world countries.According to the Centers for Disease Control, racial and gender disparities limit access to even the most effective therapies.
Recently, The New York Times carried a front-page article on young Black women with AIDS living in the South. According to their report, from 1981 to 1999, 26,522 Black women developed AIDS in the 11 states that make up the former confederacy. The South has high unemployment and a large number of people living below the poverty level, high rates of substance abuse, inadequate schools, as well as very limited access to health care. These conditions are comparable to those in thirdworld countries.
In the United States it costs as much as $15,000 a year for treatment and studies show that it is hard for poor patients to even adhere to the complicated dietary restrictions. Women were less able to meet both costs and adhere to these regimens.President Bush cut $1 billion from health programs that are essential to people living with HIV/AIDS.
A wake-up call
A system with public-run education, health and industry is the only long-term solution to the HIV/AIDS crisis. This will create quality jobs and a better standard of living, adequate safety nets and build social awareness about AIDS and promote openess and tolerance towards people living with HIV/AIDS.In the meantime, the working class here and abroad must put pressure on drug companies to make drugs free, demand the cancellation of debts to all third world countries, especially those that are impacted by HIV/AIDS.
The number one hurdle in the era of globalization is the idea that private is more efficient than public. Many poor countries are relying on the boosting of local economies to increase jobs and educate the masses about the horrors of AIDS. However, workers all over, are realizing in one way or another that private ownership undermines the livelihood of poor and working people because the almighty dollar is paramount even though our lives are at risk.
People before profits
To date, the Brazilian health system is the closest model for providing social services for its 200,000 AIDS patients. In 1998 the Brazilian government responded to the rise in both AIDS victims and treatment costs by producing its own generic anti-retroviral drugs. As a result, Brazil's health ministry estimates the number of deaths has been reduced by half.
U.S. pharmaceutical companies are trying to stop the production of generic anti-retroviral drugs because they are patented here. The U.S. corporations want royalties and the Brazilian government refuses to pay.
In April 2001, the United Nations supported Brazil's idea of ignoring patent laws to quickly respond to what the UN considers "a state of emergency." The UN voted to accept the practice of poor countries developing generic drugs by disregarding patent laws. Of course, the U.S. was the only vote against these efforts.
In a CNN interview, Robert Zoellick, a U.S. trade representative said, "The U.S. won't hesitate in using its total strength and international laws to modify the situation." Thousands are dying while corporations bicker about patent laws and sealing their future profit.
The business of health
Places where poverty and unemployment run rampant and privatization is on the rise, many working people have no resources and social structures to provide adequate healthcare, let alone to combat AIDS.
AIDS treatment in South Africa can cost from $4,000 to $9,000 per year. The average income is only $1,000 a year. Companies like Pfizer offer reduced prices only to certain sections of the world healthcare systems so not everyone benefits. Many promises have been made by these corporations to reduce the costs of AIDS drugs. Most governments and people of these countries have yet to recive these benefits.
Reducing the prices of AIDS drugs is not enough
At the latest UN Conference on AIDS held in June 2001, the UN stated in their closing declaration that, "political, financial and legal factors are hampering awareness, education, prevention, care, treatment and support efforts."IMF debt is also a major factor in the lack of money for poor countries to develop adequate social health programs. There has been a call by organizations like the UN to cancel the debt so countries can redirect money to rebuild social infrastructure.
Our generation is losing
Corporations are cashing in on the multi-billion-dollar education industry at the expense of quality public schools and our future. This has had a greater impact on poor countries in which education is put on the backburner because survival is priority. The lack of sex education and resources to prevent infection has definitely been a setback.
There are 13 million children worldwide who have been orphaned by AIDS. In most countries there is no safety net for these youth and they are tossed into a life of crime, prostitution and, in most cases, acquire AIDS themselves and continue the cycle. In many African and Caribbean countries AIDS is killing a generation - our generation.
Jessica Marshall, a student at Dartmouth College, spent four months teaching in a grade school in the Dominican Republic. "I had students who were forced to work as prostitutes to help their families struggle to survive. The disturbing thing is that this was seen as the norm."
Tourism is the number one industry for most Caribbean islands. One report calls child prostitution in Caribbean countries an "extra-curricular activity of school children." The island of Hispanola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) has 87 percent of all AIDS cases in the Caribbean.
This is not only about treatment and prevention of the HIV/AIDS. We must unite to develop social structures and governing bodies locally and nationally to build a people's agenda and fight the whims of the capitalist market that is literally killing millions by denying the right to life, health care, jobs, education and democracy.
FYI:
By the end of 2000, there were 36.1 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS.
In Asia and the Pacific, 7.5 million are living with HIV/AIDS.
In Latin America, 1.5 million.
Generic drugs are 79 percent cheaper in Brazil.
GlaxoSmithKline produces anti-retroviral capsules that 25 million need but only 25,000 get.
U.S.-backed drug companies have spent $246 million lobbying Congress.
21.8 million have died from AIDS within the past three years.
It has been estimated that at least half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are among people under 25. The numbers are even higher for women and people of color.
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