HIV in Africa

African Cultures
Spring 2008
Professor Mullins
Michelle Ludwig

I found the fight of Aids/HIV in Africa very sad and devastating-just like here in the United States. I found this article on the online page “Focus the Guardian”. The title of the page is “How Legislation can Curb Discrimination Against PLWHA”. this is the discussion of the Aids/HIV virus in Africa and how people are being treated and the need to pass a Bill to stop these people from treating the victims so bad. I find these tragedies very sad and hard to understand how individuals can be so cruel to others.

The Aids/HIV virus is spreading very quickly through Africa. So many people are being affected by this brutal disease. And just like in the United States, many people are accidentally infected with this illness. Now unprotecte4d sex is a huge contributing factor to the reasons that people are being infected with this disease, but someone can also just accidentally touch someone that has Aids/HIV on one of their open cuts with one of their one and they are now most likely infected! Or there are so many other reasons that can cause them to become infected. There is a young woman from Africa that was infected with the virus. Her young son was teased and ridiculed at school and even informed from his teacher that his mom will die soon from this illness. Why do they all need to be so cruel to this woman and her son? She feels that she is totally looked down upon, like she is just a failure in life and has no right to be here. She has a degree and was successful in life, like many others. She has no right to be made fun of, or pushed aside and not to be treated like the others.

The Federal Government is facilitating a bill in National Assembly to get rid of all forms of discrimination. They want to protect human rights and keep privacy on people with Aids/HIV. They should not be seeing any forms of discrimination or stigma at work or any other societal interactions. There are many posters talking of these people that are infected, and it is making them all look very bad. Azimzi from the National Rights Human Rights Commission feels that if it becomes known of these people being infected, that these individuals would be less to care of others and actually intentionally infect other people with this disease. It has been known for people to be thrown out of homes and not allowed in social events because of their illness. Alimazia feels that to pass the Bill, it would have to be presented to the National Assembly and upgrading of NACA into an agency. Some civil society groups feel that all of this may not keep against Aids/HIV. It ahs been said that the Bill has left the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to the Ministry of Justice where it has been submitted to the federal Executive Council to be approved.

hey are trying really hard to make the life a little easier for these people with Aids/HIV. They are trying to pass laws to help stop the discrimination and stigmatization against these people. Hopefully they will help people understand that these people that are infected are all people like the rest of us and they are not any different than the rest of us. Until then, people will still be cruel to these humans and they won’t all have a nice “normal” life.