World Aids Day brings with it a mixture of joy and blues. This year marked 25 years since the first case study detailing an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases among gay men alerted the world to Aids.
The optimism was rare this time and the statistics were startling. ILO warned that HIV/Aids threatened to decimate the globe’s workforce after 3.5 million people of working age succumbed to the disease in 2005.
Former US president Bill Clinton revealed India as the new global HIV epicentre having picked the baton from South Africa. HIV/Aids infections now stand at 40 million according to the UN. About 14,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day, over four million people were infected with HIV in 2006, three million people died from Aids-related illnesses in 2006 which was more than 8,000 deaths a day.
Uganda is no longer a global anti-HIV/Aids showpiece. Countries like Senegal are posting lower-HIV infection rates than us. Never mind that the Global Fund scandal left us with egg on our face.
There was a flicker of hope though in shows like the UBC TV special that aired on World Aids Day at 4p.m. in which renowned African personalities like Afro-pop diva Angelique Kidjo and Bishop Desmond Tutu promised to support initiatives that would yield an HIV-free Africa. That may look like a tall order but it is worth giving a try.
DStv’s bouquet of music channels also latched on this year’s World Aids Day. Channel O ran the HIV/Aids red ribbon all day although it played sensual music videos like Puff Daddy and Nicole Schezinger’s Come With Me. MTV’s rotation of music videos like Nelly Furtado and Timbaland’s Promiscuous was lost on me. It defeated the very essence of the channel’s Staying Alive weekend crusade.