December 1st is the day that Aids is discussed and written about around the world. I found that the December 1 issue of The Times newspaper published in South Africa on International Aids Day had some interesting facts.
"More than 42,000 babies born in South Africa last year began life HIV-positive. A Medical Research Council study presented at the national Aids conference in June showed that the national mother-to-child HIV transmission rate was 3.5%. In 2008 the figure was 8.8%." So progress is being made. " Lead researcher Ameena Goga said that national average trasmission rate of 3.5% was based on HIV tests on babies up to eight weeks old. But if the study had been on 18 month old babies the trasnmission rate would have been 'likely to exceed 5% because of mixed feeding practices and shortages of prophylactic drugs.'"
"South Africa also has the most children under the age of 14 living with HIV in the world - 333,941. . . . UNAids reports that more than 29,000 South African children under 14 die from Aids every year."
So there is progress being made in the fight against HIV/Aids. But there is still a great deal of improvement to work toward. There is stigma in South Africa that prevents testing and early treatment. There are many new cases of HIV in all age groups. And there are some areas of the country where the Anti-Viral medications are difficult to obtain.
The St. Francis Care Center can now be proud of the fact that there have been no children at their Rainbow Cottage that have died of AIDS in the past three years.
Cecilia
Congratulations to everyone's hard-work and dedication at St. Francis Care Center!
ReplyDelete"The St. Francis Care Center can now be proud of the fact that there have been no children at their Rainbow Cottage that have died of AIDS in the past three years"