AFRICA: THE AFROPHOBIA AND THE PANDEMIC KILLER NOTIONS

 AIDS       AIDS KNOWS: NO RACE NO GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION BEWARE.
   IS
REAL.

  'I thought only people in Africa could catch AIDS’, those were the words of 48 years old HIV positive Rachel Diley during a television interview. She further went on to explain how in her teenager age she embraced sex without a condom since she knew at her age chances were little of her falling pregnant. Dear readers out there, I want to take this opportunity to address the whole issue of the killer disease HIV/AIDS that is taking more lives than any other disease on earth. And I will also love to talk about the ‘afrophobia’ or fear of Africa that most people have expressed in medias and reality all in relation to the pandemic HIV/AIDS.

First and foremost, the letters HIV stand for human immunodeficiency virus meaning that the HIV virus attacks the immune system, and weakens a person’s immunity system to fight infections. And AIDS stands for acquired immune deficiency syndrome meaning that AIDS is the final stage of HIV, when one’s body can no longer fight life-threatening infections. With the above explanations highlighted above, its important to observe that HIV/AIDS is a human disease that affects people of all walks of life. Remember, HIV/AIDS is not an African disease made for Africans only, but it’s a universe disease that everybody has to stand against. 

Furthermore, the 'afrophobia' in relation to HIV/AIDS is based on statistics that shows Africa being  the continent with the highest number of people infected in the world, but that does not make it an ‘All African Disease’. Africa is like any other place on earth that has a population with AIDS, but that does not mean every African is HIV/AIDS positive. Below are statistics of the pandemic adopted from ‘Making AIDS history amfAR site:

Continent	Population Of Infected
Sub-Saharan Africa	25 million
Asia-pacific	351 000
Caribbean	250 000
Central and South America	1.5 million
North Africa And Middle East	260 000
Eastern Europe And Central Asia	1.3 million
Western And Central Europe	860 000

Therefore, all I can say in accordance to the World Health Organization (WHO) report of 2012 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS while they were 1.6 million deaths of AIDS related diseases worldwide and 119 countries reported a total of 95 million tested in 2010.

With much already discussed and highlighted above, its most to outline ways one can get HIV/AIDS; using a contaminated needle, syringe, or other injecting equipments, transmission from mother to child, birth or breastfeeding and through oral sex or sharing sex toys (even though the risk is lower for anal and vaginal).

 And please Dear readers, ignorance of the pandemic disease will endanger yourself, family and community at large so beware and know that HIV/AIDS IS NOT AN AFRICAN DISEASE, BUT A UNIVERSE DISEASE AND YOU CAN GET IT ANYWHERE IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES AS AN INDIVIDUAL. And as for Africa, for those who have never been to the ‘mother land’, all I can say is that, ‘you need to be there yourself and make up your own conclusion, because today’s media is biased and treats the African story very hush if not ignorant’. 
   

In conclusion, i would like to remember somebody that HIV/AIDS is a KILLER disease that knows no race or geographical location.