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Let's be serious about HIV Prevention
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
February 23, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802250074.html

There has been much talk about Aids vaccine over the years -- talk that each and every person living with HIV and Aids, every programmer, activist and parent, must have been following with interest and concern.

For would it not be great to one day have a vaccine that attempts to control the virus through antibodies or by boosting the body's immune system.

A vaccine that would work in more or less the same way as the measles and polio and tetanus vaccinations -- which have given every child in this country and beyond, a chance and an opportunity to grow up healthy and strong.

While children are still coming down with measles and mumps, the cases are not as severe because the children have been vaccinated against them.

If this could be the case with HIV, would every parent not sigh with relief?

It is every parent's prayer that their child is healthy and lives for as long a time as possible.

Parents and communities, be they HIV positive or negative, want their children to be HIV-free and a vaccine is one sure way of bringing this reality closer to the ground.

Recent media reports have however, put a damper on any hopes that we might have nursed that we were closer to finding a vaccine.

BBC News reports that scientists are no further forward in developing a vaccine against HIV after more than 20 years of research.

It quotes president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Nobel-prize winning biologist, Professor David Baltimore saying HIV had evolved a way to protect itself from the human immune system at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAS).

"I believe that HIV has found ways to totally fool the immune system. So we have to do one better than nature," said Professor Baltimore who is also leading the Baltimore Laboratory at Caltech, with support from the Gates Foundation, to look for ways to genetically boost the immune system against infectious agents, particularly HIV.

He said the latest development has left the vaccine community depressed because they can see no hopeful way of success.

Scientists were now trying to novel techniques, such as gene and stem cell therapy, although this is still in its infancy.

What all this effectively means is that we must intensify our efforts to prevent new HIV infections at all cost. HIV and AIDS is still with us for a long, long time and the truth is no one has any idea of how long, if ever, a cure or vaccine will ever be found.

Looking at the current challenges facing people living with HIV and AIDS who are on treatment, there is need for all of us to emphasize prevention at all cost to each and every person who is still negative.

Prevention as the Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr David Parirenyatwa always says is and always will be the greatest cure this region can bank on.

Fear has never worked miracles but facts should be able to at least get some of us thinking seriously about the direction that we want our lives to take.

If each and every person understands the challenges that come with living with HIV and AIDS, if they understand the expenses that come with it and the emotional scars that many have borne as a result of being HIV positive, with the high levels of stigma and discrimination that society still has- they should be able to try harder to ensure that they protect themselves and the next person from HIV.

This is not to imply that there is something wrong with people who are living with HIV but as my colleague who has been struggling to get her next supply of drugs puts it; "It is not as easy road to travel and if it can be avoided, it should."

That in itself and the fact that there is no cure or vaccine on the horizon should be enough to discourage each and every one of us, negative or positive from putting ourselves in situations where we can get infected, re-infected or infect the next person.

"We cannot over emphasise the need for us to get the prevention message out, not only to the public but to ourselves as individuals living in Zimbabwe, a country in southern Africa, which is the epi-centre of the epidemic," an advocacy programme officer with Southern Africa Information Dissemination Service Ms Dominica Mudota said following reports about the lack of success in a vaccine find.

In our different lives, we all have an opportunity to make a difference.

In the personal relationships we are in, the idea is to begin to realise that we cannot afford not to know our HIV status, not to know our partner's HIV status and we cannot afford to continue to practice unsafe sex.

With mothers, the onus is on us to appreciate the fact that we cannot go on to have babies without knowing our status, without making sure these babies are protected. Surely with the challenges that adults are facing getting their treatment on a monthly basis, how much harder will it be for the baby who may need treatment?

Prevention programmes like the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) reduce the chances of babies becoming infected by their mothers and surely every child deserves that right.

If you are the kind of man who is still sleeping out of the home, sowing your seed in as many places as possible, if you are the type of woman who is doing the same- ask yourselves about the implications of your actions?

Today's message is for all of us to take the prevention message very seriously. Yes we have been talking about HIV and AIDS for a long time. As others say "it has become too much."

Looking at the newest reports, some accurate and some not so accurate; can we afford to slacken in our efforts to make sure each and every Zimbabwean understands that HIV is real and should be prevented where possible?

Those living with HIV and AIDS understand and in most instances take this message quite seriously. They abide by the maxim: no sex without a condom and live as healthily as they can.

Their stories may differ but they are all profound. The appeal to every one today is to take prevention seriously and prevent HIV.

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