Since the mid-1970s, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been spreading throughout the world, causing an epidemic that many people consider difficult if not impossible to curtail.

AIDS stems from a virus known as HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, the origin of which is unknown. There are speculations that it originally developed from a type of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), but since HIV does not manifest itself very explicitly, information about early cases is incomplete at best.

HIV had spread to five continents by 1980 and is currently present all over the world in varying degrees of intensity, according to Avert, an international charity organization dedicated to education about and the eradication of HIV and AIDS.

Since its discovery, over 20 million people have died worldwide from AIDS. Nearly twice that many are currently infected.

While the epidemic is most severe in developing nations, where there is little education about prevention and treatment, high-income countries are also faced with a significant population of people who are at risk for contracting HIV and AIDS.

AIDS cases in the United States were reported as early as 1981. While the number of Americans dying of AIDS has decreased and stabilized since the mid-1990s, in 2002 it was estimated that nearly 400,000 Americans were living with AIDS.

Epidemic prevalent in the sub-Saharan

The pandemic is most severe in sub-Saharan Africa-in several countries, roughly one quarter of the adults are infected with HIV. Over 25 million Africans are currently living with HIV, and two million of those infected are under the age of 15.

Another alarming statistic: 12 million African children have lost their parents to AIDS. This figure represents 95 percent of all children orphaned by AIDS throughout the world.

However, the acuteness with which AIDS is spreading within Africa varies greatly. In some countries the epidemic is growing rapidly, while others have curbed the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The four countries where the epidemic is most severe are Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In all four of these countries over 24 percent of the adult population is infected with HIV. While the countries are attempting to ameliorate their plight, progress is slow and they have several major challenges to face.

In Botswana, where the prevalence rate is 36.5 percent, the government has implemented programs to raise awareness and improve communication about HIV/AIDS. It is also the first government to attempt to create a comprehensive antiretroviral drug program, which would provide much needed medication to those citizens who are most treatable.

Approximately 24,000 Botswanan people are currently enrolled in this program, called MASA, a Setswana word meaning “new dawn.” Fourteen thousand of them are actually receiving antiretroviral drugs. However, even this effort is not nearly sufficient enough to treat the hundreds of thousands of citizens living with HIV or AIDS.

The only country with a higher prevalence rate than Botswana is Swaziland, with over 38 percent of adults infected. In Swaziland, the most serious issue is the enormous number of AIDS orphans.

Africa Focus (an organization that advocates African issues) cites Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, as saying “Child-headed households proliferate; fully ten percent of the households are ‘sibling families.’”

However, Swaziland is implementing enormous treatment plans that will give aid to the sick and create community centers where the innumerable orphans can find help.

In conjunction with the World Health Organization, Swaziland’s NERCHA (National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS) seems to be creating effective and wide-ranging programs that will hopefully reduce the chilling statistics.

Some countries successful in eradication of disease

Not all of Africa is struggling to build a network of AIDS awareness-some have already succeeded in reducing the number of people infected with HIV. Uganda, which had a prevalence rate of over 30 percent in the early 1990s, now boasts a rate of only 4.1 percent.

Using a combination of private donations and World Bank loans, the Ugandan government created the Sexually Transmitted Infections Project in 1994 and the Poverty Eradication Action Plan in 2000, both of which have aided the country in reducing the number of HIV infections.

However, despite promising statistics in some areas, much of the world still faces obstacles and challenges concerning the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Without serious planning and implementation of widespread programs to improve conditions, AIDS will continue to spread among the uneducated and unprotected.

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