NOROWARE OSULA HEALTH FOUNDATION

As we all know HIV/AIDS has unfolded along a pattern we tend to see only in nightmares. It has spread faster with more catastrophic long-term effects than any other disease. It took the world too long to wake up. Millions paid with their lives.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

HIV is a nightmare that isn’t going away. 33 million people in the world are infected with HIV. Africa is worst-hit and Asia is suffering. HIV affects the whole world, but put in another way,

approximately 25 people will have died of AIDS by the time you finish this article – that’s one in every 15 seconds, 6,000 every day and 2.1 million every year.
But the horrifying truth is that it doesn’t need to be this way. HIV was once a death sentence but now drugs called antiretrovirals (ARVs) can keep HIV in check, making it a manageable condition, a bit like diabetes. Early diagnosis, early treatment and you can lead a normal life.

SURVIVABLE.
People with HIV can live a normal life – but only if they have access to ARVs yet millions in the developing world either can’t afford them, or do not realize they need them because they don’t know their status. It has been discovered that the drugs don’t always work properly if a person doesn’t eat enough. Also poverty and ignorance leads many people to avoiding taking the test.

Those who don’t get tested will never know they’re HIV positive, and will never get treated. The ultimate price of this is death. Sexually-transmitted infections and sex in general can be so hard to talk about, as a result most government often don’t like to deal with HIV not until the problem is already out of control. HIV isn’t getting the political priority it needs.