Africa: HIV/AIDS through Unsafe Medical Care (2)
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Dear David Gisselquist,
I am very pleased to see a posting of your paper on "Africa: HIV/AIDS
through Unsafe Medical Care".
Your work was probably better funded and probably better researched
than my own work on the subject. Though I have been involved with
"development" for a good number of years, the health sector has never
been my top priority. However this changed in the early 90s when it
became apparent to me that morbidity and mortality had increased dra-
matically and were having a devastating impact on socioeconomic pro-
gress.
Based on just a limited knowledge of the statistics, it was glaringly
apparent that the incidence of HIV-AIDS in Africa could not be ex-
plained simply by sexual behavior. Something else was going on.
The conclusion that I reached was that medical services were to some
extent to blame, especially "dirty needles".... the multiple use of
single use disposable syringes in a medical context.
Why would this be? My conclusion was that resources for medical ser-
vices were extremely limited..... and sadly insufficient knowledge
had become dangerous. Injections were a "good" thing, and were used
far too often and in ways that have now proved to be very dangerous.
Simplistic cost analysis ended up with economists arguing for multi-
ple use of disposable syringes because it was "cheaper" than using
these syringes just the one time as was intended.
At the end of the day..... my conclusion is that leadership in the
global health sector has been incredibly unresponsive to widespread
catastrophic failure. The institutions have talked about the prob-
lem..... but have yet to mobilise to do much about it.
Imagine what funding would have been available if the per capita
health (and research) resources for AIDS worldwide was on a par with
the per capita resources mobilized in the USA for Americans with
AIDS. Imagine what funding would have been available if the preventa-
tive efforts for AIDS worldwide were on the same scale as the preven-
tative efforts in the USA for the West Nile virus.
Imagine what value would have been derived from better availability
of basic medical supplies, especially antibiotics in the treatment of
STDs.... and the value that would have been derived from better
availability of auto-disable (AD) single use syringes.
The scale of the health and HIV-AIDS crisis in Africa is difficult to
comprehend..... and far too easy to ignore if you live outside Af-
rica. By any measure.... the failure of world leadership to take an
interest in this crisis and take effective measures to address the
crisis is nothing more or less than a terrible crime against human-
ity.
So my question is...... very simply..... what now does leadership do
to get this crisis under control and behind us? What has to be done
to get concrete action and resources to do what needs to be done?
Professionals are talking a lot, and having conferences and writing
papers. People are dying at rates not far short of 10,000 a DAY......
and there is virtually NO OUTRAGE. Near bankrupt governments, and
wrong priorities within structural adjustment have ensured the almost
universal failure of the African health sector. People are avail-
able...... but money for essential medical materials and salaries is
NOT. Why oh why are we waiting?
Sincerely,
T. Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York USA
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
Fax: +1-707-371-7805
mailto:profitinafrica@aol.com
mailto:hivaidsstories@aol.com
http://www.atcnet.org
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