AIDS+history+in+South+Africa+and+Swaziland

__History__ : __South Africa__ : In 1983 Aids was diagnosed for the first time in two patients in South Africa. It was seen more in homosexual men than anything, so they didn’t really worry much about it. In 1992, Nelson Mandela recognized it as an inconvenience, or a slight problem, enough that he made a National AIDS Helpline that was free for the Africans to use. By 1993, the amount of people with AIDS increased by 60%, and the prevalence of pregnant women with AIDS was at 4.3%. In 1995, there was a conference for people living with AIDS, the first one conducted in South Africa, and they estimated that about 2.1% of the population is HIV positive. In 1998, the Treatment Action Campaign formed to recognize those with HIV/AIDS and demand that there be treatment for those who need it. By 1999, the amount of pregnant women with AIDS reached 22.4%, raising about 18.1% in the short time length of 6 years. South Africa has the highest amount of people who have AIDS in the world. Until about 2003, when diagnosed with being HIV positive, people in South Africa could only get treated for the ailments that HIV caused, and not treatment for the actual virus itself. As a consequence of slow government, the prevalence of AIDS went from .8%-27.1%. President Mbeki got the word out about AIDS and its prevalence in South Africa.They were also slow when it came to treating AIDS because the president thought that it was caused by poverty, not HIV. He also believed that anti-viral medications couldn’t help people, and changing the nutrition of people would. White leaders refused to teach an AIDS education program in schools, and didn’t take it as a big deal until the end of the 1990’s. Despite them realizing that it’s a pretty big problem, only about 30% of the people who have AIDS are getting medicine to help.

__Swaziland__ : The first reported case of AIDS in Swaziland was in 1986, and since then it’s been a major socioeconomic problem. Through out Swaziland’s history they discourage safe sex protection, so they don’t use any protection of sex. In their culture, they don’t like the idea of safe sex or monogamous relationships, believing that their purpose was to procreate and keep the population going, having at least 5 kids a family. “In the mid-1980 Swaziland responded to its country’s first case of Aids by setting up a short-term plan which 1986-1988.” The king declared AIDS a natural disaster. Hannie Dlamini says condoms will not stop AIDS. Swaziland has the world’s most severe AIDS epidemic. Thousands of children are orphaned to AIDS, only a small percentage grow up in a two parent family. 15,000 children under the age of 15 are HIV/AIDS positive. By 2000, 32.4% of women were HIV/Aids positive. By 2002 61% of the deaths in Swaziland were caused by HIV/AIDS. In 2009, the life expectancy in Swaziland fell from 61 years to 32 years. Because people are so ashamed of having AIDS, very few people come out and say they have it.