AFRICA: 28 million Africans now living with HIV/AIDS (4)
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Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a bit puzzled by the surprise about this figure. This has been
known since the Dec 2001 UNAIDS report from which we unfortunately
got no such international reactions. In fact the December figure will
be higher than the 28 million in that it only mentions sub-Saharan
Africa without the African countries above the Sahara. I am however
grateful to the statements by Dr. Goldstein from Soul City. I think
we need to have the latest information on our fingertips. I also hope
that fellow Africans will start doing operational research and put
forward best practices for publication by such organisations as
UNAIDS so that we can all learn from each other.
These headlines on their own will not solve the problem - we need ac-
tion now. I hope Barcelona will bring us better hope than the terri-
ble "African" figures. I wonder how many of us understand these fig-
ures since they depersonalise the issue. These 28 million people are
men, women, fathers, mothers, sisters, daughters, sons etc.
WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET THAT. They are not just figures.
Dr. Vitalis Chipfakacha
Botswana
mailto:vchipfakacha@gov.bw
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