I was infected at 19 and became one of the first persons in the world to receive the new combination therapies (at 34) that proved to be so successful. My viral load has been undetectable for 10...I was infected at 19 and became one of the first persons in the world to receive the new combination therapies (at 34) that proved to be so successful. My viral load has been undetectable for 10 years now, and my health is better than it's been for 20 years. Why do I live while others die? The answer is simply because I get the care I need and needed to survive. The only reason people die from HIV is because of economics.

"An estimated 38.6 million [33.4 million"“46.0 million] people worldwide were living with HIV in 2005. An estimated 4.1 million [3.4 million"“6.2 million] became newly infected with HIV and an estimated 2.8 million [2.4million"“3.3 million] lost their lives to AIDS." .

AIDS and HIV first became noticed in 1981 when gay men in the United States started developing a cancer rarely seen before in young men, Kaposi's sarcoma. Soon other gay men started dying from illnesses like pneumonia. Then American IV drug users and immigrants from Haiti also started dying from similar diseases. By 1984 it had been determined that hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti and Africa had already died from a mysterious disease previously called the slimming disease. We now know that HIV has existed in the Congo since at least 1956.

No one in the developed world really noticed or cared that hundreds of thousands of people were dying for unexplained reasons in Africa. However many more people were dying from other illnesses, that were treatable or for which a treatment could easily be developed. So it's easy to see why nobody knew many young people in Africa were dying for unknown reasons.
However once large middle-class American gay men developed the illness in the 80s it became noticed. Gay men's work does not go unnoticed in economics, and activism by middle-class gay men also ensures that they were not invisible. It was profitable for the drug companies to develop treatments to combat the HIV virus. In 1995 an effective treatment was developed and the number of people dying from HIV in the west drop dramatically.

Although many side effects can be difficult to deal with, people with HIV are surviving the illness. Today worldwide less than 20% of the people with advance AIDS who need treatment are getting it.

Today AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death in the world, and it is soon to become the third leading cause of death. The 2005 Human Development Report identified AIDS as the factor inflicting the single greatest reversal in human development history. Between 1990 and 2003, many of the countries most severely affected by AIDS dropped sharply in the global ranking of countries on the Human Development Index. South Africa fell by 35 places, Zimbabwe by 23, Botswana by 21, Swaziland by 20, Kenya by 18, Zambia by 16 and Lesotho by 15.

The epidemic is one more in series of events to affect Africa since the beginning of the slave trade. European dominance of Africa and its treatment by the world since has lead to the conditions that AIDS and other illnesses are allowed to flourish. Africa's current system of governance set up by Europeans is ineffective in providing health care for pregnant women, let alone deal with the epidemic. Globally in countries (in largely former colonies, like African countries) 600,000 maternal deaths occur annually. "In 2006, almost two thirds (63%) of all persons infected with HIV are living in sub-Saharan Africa"”24.7 million [21.8 million"“27.7 million]. An estimated 2.8 million [2.4 million"“3.2 million] adults and children became infected with HIV in 2006, more than in all other regions of the world combined. The 2.1 million [1.8 million"“2.4 million] AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa represent 72% of global AIDS deaths. Across this region, women bear a dispropor¬tionate part of the AIDS burden: not only are they more likely than men to be infected with HIV, but they are largely the ones caring for people sick with HIV."

AIDS and HIV is just not about disease, it is also about ignorance, fear, apathy, hopelessness, sexism, racism, homophobia and economics. Globally HIV targets the marginalized. If you belong to one marginalized group the risk of becoming infected is increased, if you belong to two or more marginalized groups your risk of becoming infected is even greater.

These groups of people are; Aboriginal peoples, women, injection drug users, the poor, men who have sex with men, sex workers, and children. You are not only more likely to become infected if you belong to a marginalised group; you are also less likely to be treated if you do. These groups are all economically marginalised. After an individual becomes known as being HIV+, people are then further marginalised and suffer great stigmatization. Whether it's an HIV-positive woman in South Africa or a First Nations gay man living in Canada, HIV leads to further alienation from the community.

Some people claim that we do not have the ability to provide treatment for everyone in the world. Some claim that we cannot provide education and basic health care. However The 22 highest income countries, holding 13.6% of the world's population spent from all sources more than US$ 3 trillion on health care. Only US$ 8.3 billion was spent in fighting AIDS in the poorest 148 countries including included out-of-pocket spending by HIV-positive people and their households. In millions of cases, they were spending far beyond their capacity and being driven even deeper into poverty and debt but still not receiving antiretroviral therapy and other basic services. All that was needed according to the UN in those countries was 14.9 billion to fight the AIDS epidemic. In 2005, the 148 countries were home to 5.5 billion people, or 85% of the world's population.

Our economic system has to be reformed into a system that recognizes the work of all in a more equitable way, and provides everyone with the necessities of life. I would create a "people deficit" to address the damage done to society when people are not provided the bare necessities of life. These include basic education, food, basic health care, clean water, safety, and a way up the economic system. We particularly have to pay attention to the needs and concerns of women. They do most of the work in the world and they suffer the most under our current economic system. We have to make visible and acknowledge the leading role women play in building healthy communities.

We have to fight hopelessness and despair that the size of this problem creates by developing theologies and philosophies that support life, gives hope and affirms the dignity of every individual.

Cuba provides an alternative way of dealing with HIV. There has been no dramatic increase in HIV transmission in Cuba since the beginning of the epidemic. The rate of infection is 0.03% and thought to be one of the lowest in the world. The government has ensured that all HIV-positive mothers are treated with prophylactic therapy and that their babies are delivered by caesarean section. The country has also produced enough antiretrovirals to supply all of the country's people infected with HIV .

Letting people die when we can do something about it is unethical. Letting people die in the largest preventable epidemic in the history of the world makes it the greatest evil the world has ever known. Our own involvement and benefits we derived from our present economic system compels us to examine what it is in ourselves that we let people die. What is it in our religious beliefs that contribute that lets us allow people to die for economic reasons? What is it that we believe about the "other" and ourselves that we let people die, or even contribute to their deaths by our passive consent to the present system?

How do we reach people in the world, who have the power to do something? How do we respond to despair, when we face a problem this large people, think they can not do anything. After ignorance, despair is the number one reason people are doing nothing to help fight AIDS and HIV.

I was infected at 19 and became one of the first persons in the world to receive the new combination therapies that proved to be so successful. My viral load has been undetectable for 10 years now, and my health is better than it's been for 20 years. Why do I live while others die? The answer is simply because I get the care I need and needed to survive. The only reason people die from HIV is because of economics.

I believe that the individual in North America needs internal change or a spiritual and values conversion in the west. To do so we need to develop healthy relationships with the people of the earth, and the earth itself. We can learn from the people in Africa if we enter into just relationships with them. Especially from those who continue to go on, in the face of almost impossible odds. Perhaps if we paid attention to what the grandmothers in Africa are doing, what they have learned about life, we can be inspired to change our ways from a consumerist society to one that is based on our relationships with the earth and other people.

Take a look at Cindy, http://www.camfed.org/html/cindy_s_story.html

Where does this HIV+ orphan's hope come from, why does she not suffer from more despair? The answers to these questions could be the answer to the despair of people in the world. This is not just about AIDS. Despair and hopelessness are major problems in the lives of people. It is about the despair people feel about their own lives, or the environment, or any other problem that seems to big to be able to do something about it. The people of the world can save themselves by ending this disconnect we have from people with HIV/AIDS. We need to realise we are in a relationship with the whole world and take responsibility.

Works Cited
Bentley, Molly. "Cuba leads the way in HIV fight", BBC News 17 February 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2003/denver_2003/2770631.stm

Jones, Eileen Kerwin. Birthing Justice: Towards a Feminist Liberation Theo-ethical Analysis of Economic Justice and Maternal Mortality, (Dissertation St. Paul University, Ottawa 2006), 1

Mann, J. M. "AIDS: A worldwide pandemic", in Current topics in AIDS, 2, eds. by Gottlieb M.S et al. John Wiley & Sons

United Nations. 2006 Report on the Global Aids Epidemic. (New York: United Nations, 2006),

United Nations. Global summary of the AIDS epidemic . (New York: United Nations, 2006)

United Nations, Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic: Executive summary. (New York: United Nations, 2006)