As IF Times

link The Associated Press: UNAIDS: Funding cuts could lead to HIV nightmare.

Following up on the last piece about sending 42 million condoms to South Africa to fight AIDS during the upcoming World Cup, we visit the sober side of the news story.  I’ll neatly avoid discussing the whys and wherefores for AIDS being  in such full blown crisis there as well as in other African countries.  This way, I’ll neatly avoid the racist and divisive argument  regularly applied to us non lefties. 

Let’s use the perspective of another crisis which recently captured the headlines.  Recall that 6 months ago, a bird flu pandemic, innocuously labelled H1N1, was the big fear among nations.  News was  abundant with stories of shortages of vaccine, of people desperate for the shots, of all kinds of measures to educate people on ways in which to avoid contracting the illness.  Statistics on actual casualties from the flu are hard to find and quite undependable.  According to the Centre for Disease Control, there were 57 million cases of this flu resulting in a reported 17,000 deaths.  This statistic is questionable because according to the World Health Organization, total world deaths from this flu was about 16,000.  Either H1N1 was a problem mainly to North America or else mortality rates were vastly under reported worldwide.   The point is, deaths from the big flu panic were statistically negligible considering a US population of 300 million and a world population of 3 billion give or take.

Compare this to the affliction statistics out of South Africa for HIV/AIDS sufferers:

“…South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country’s HIV treatment program is heavily dependent on external donor funding. An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, more than any other country…”  according to this article.

This in a population of 47 million people.  So roughly 12% of that country’s population is exposed to the ravages of this deadly disease.  The article also points out that 94% of funding for medication comes from outside funding.  While no one argues the humanitarian attempts to ameliorate the effects of this disease, unless there are policies to stop the flow from its source,  countries like South Africa will always be one finger short of the next leak in the dike.  People just can’t just do what they’ve been doing and expect that Governments will be there to pay for the fix afterwards.  Think about that.  You have a one in 8 chance in that country of being exposed to someone with HIV from carnal relations. 

 When you contract H1N1, it is really through no fault of your own.  One could be infected merely from the routine of day to day living.   In the case of HIV/AIDS, unless you have contracted it from a mother at birth, the disease is absolutely avoidable.  The causes are known.  Exchange of bodily fluids is the only way to be exposed.  For reasons of culture, or of ignorance, or of criminal behaviour,  HIV/AIDS continues to proliferate because of wrong headed attitudes towards its containment.  Rather than emboldening people with the idea that condoms will keep them safe from harm, how about pushing the idea that being discriminate about your encounters is a better solution?  Governments must be serious about prosecuting and or isolating those that willfully spread the disease rather than be content to be condom providers.   Imagine if a bird flu sufferer ran loose coughing all over your food.  Long established traditions and attitudes have to change, regardless of how unpopular they may be.

The consequence of visitors coming to South Africa requiring 42 million condoms and then going back to their own countries after being exposed to HIV is truly frightening.  It will make the hysteria over bird flu seem like a throat tickle.

link Britain sends South Africa 42m condoms in HIV fight before World Cup | World news | The Guardian.

As if.  Forty two million condoms sent to South Africa for a soccer tournament?  Who are they sending, Warren Beatty clones?  The recently held Olympics in Vancouver made big headlines when 100,000 condoms were shipped into the athletes’ village and it occured to people just what the 5 Olympic rings really symbolized  Forty two million makes those people out to be nuns by comparison.  Doing a quick fact check on the World Bank website, reveals that the entire population of South Africa is 47 million people. 

Come to think of it, is that the real reason to hold sporting events worldwide, to spread the genetic pollen of tourists and participants?   Why don’t they just hand out condoms with the boarding passes?  There’s an entrepreneurial idea.  Come to think of it, there have been some mysterious extra  ‘charges’ on plane tickets recently.  In regard to South Africa, how do they logistically even distribute 42 million condoms?  Does the post office do it?  Do they drop them on citizens from low flying aircraft? Are they included with breakfast cereal, or attached to Starbucks cups?  Then again, think of having to dispose of those things afterwards.  SHIVER.

For this amount of product to be shipped for the World Cup event implies a couple of possibilities about South Africa.  One is that people there are a little on the promiscuous side, or at least have the reputation of it.  Another, is that it’s a nation of hookers.  Either way, it must be a very compelling group of people to meet since the incidence of HIV/AIDS there is among , if not the highest in the world.  That a flimsy piece of rubber is the only thing standing in the way of possibly acquiring a fatal disease falls squarely in the idiot category.  More on this later.