Comments on naijablog: The language of HIV-AIDS

Anengiyefa, full marks, for being:- informative- i...

2008-06-21T12:09:00.000+01:00

Anengiyefa, full marks, for being:
- informative
- inclusive
- pratical
- knowledgeable
- non-judgemental.

Sandrine, good points.

@ Anengiyefa,I agree with you that money should be...

2008-06-20T19:49:00.000+01:00

@ Anengiyefa,
I agree with you that money should be spent on treatment.It is true that people can live with HIV.But I think the fact that some people in Africa believe that a person who is infected will probably die is realistic in some places because it might be unlikely that they get access to the treatments.Also I agree with you that the message should be clear that nobody is immune to the virus.Another thing I believe is that condoms should be promoted, not just abstinence which is usually what the Church condones.
Sandrine

I notice no one responded to this or did you not h...

2008-06-20T16:21:00.000+01:00

I notice no one responded to this or did you not have a chance yet to post responses?
Do you think we are still have lethargic feelings when it comes to this subject?
Anyways, interesting article, different languages, same meaning, hopefully, same attitude when it comes to fighting it.

Just checking out your blog for the first time, in...

2008-06-20T16:08:00.000+01:00

Just checking out your blog for the first time, interesting read I must say. I love your translations on HIV/AIDS particularly the one in Luganda (Uganda), well thats ffor obvious reasons...Keep up the good work

Cheers
Florence Kayemba-Ibokabasi

For the Yoruba part of your post, you missed one t...

2008-06-20T15:38:00.000+01:00

For the Yoruba part of your post, you missed one that used to be common in the past as far as I know, Iranlowo - literally meaning "aid" as in assist

Hi Jeremy,What is positive communication?In my opi...

2008-06-20T14:20:00.000+01:00

Hi Jeremy,

What is positive communication?In my opinion, billions should be spent in education and prevention.Does positive communications means educating people so they understand how the disease is transmitted,protect themselves and stop shunning the ones affected?OK then.
But if positive communication means giving HIV/AIDS another name,what would people call a disease that kills,make people destitute and suffer terribly, lose their dignity and makes millions of orphans?

Sandrine

interesting post....I have also heard of "eggs" be...

2008-06-20T04:04:00.000+01:00

interesting post....I have also heard of "eggs" being used my my maternal community because it sounds like AIDS. I always assumed that these euphemisms for AIDS served to lessen the stigma. But then again, it is difficult to paint all African euphemisms for AIDS with one broad stroke. In one context it may serve to increase stigma (maybe such as red card) or lessen, (such as "ato na ise")....just a thought.

pyoo wata
the nollywood critique

It is unfortunate that in Africa, people still bel...

2008-06-20T01:29:00.000+01:00

It is unfortunate that in Africa, people still believe that when a person is infected with HIV, this inevitably means that his/her death is imminent. In the developed world, the prognosis for most HIV infected people is a normal, full, long, relatively healthy life, and people infected with HIV die mostly of causes quite unrelated to their HIV infection. With today's technology, HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence that it once was.

This is something that our governments need to wake up to. There is a need to intensfy efforts to provide antiretroviral drugs (ARV's) to those HIV infected people who need them, and as soon as the drugs are needed. The key to succeeding in prolonging lives, is ensuring that a constant supply of the drugs is maintained, so that resitance to the drugs by the virus is kept in abeyance. And even when resistance to first-line drugs does occur, to ensure that second-line medication is readily available. It is about getting priorities in the right order, and investing resources in areas where massive investment is required.

It is true that many of the newer generation drugs are very expensive, and are usually protected by patent, so that cheaper generic versions of the drugs cannot be produced for use in the world's poorer countries, where unfortunately, the need for these drugs is greatest. This is where I would like to see our governents acting together to put pressure on the governments of Europe and America, by whatever means available to them. Brazil has already successfully done this, and is now able to manufacture Atazanavir, a relatively new and very effective protease inhibitor (second-line treatment) for its own population, even though this drug is still supposedly proected by patent.

Of course, there continues to be the need for prevention strategies to be designed, and to get the message accross to people that nobody is immune to the virus. But for any prevention programme to stand a decent chance of success, groups of people who are especially vulnerable must be specifically targeted. We cannot afford to allow our religious or moral sensibilities keep us from recognising the importance of including commercial sex workers, and men who have sex with men (MSM's), in our fight against this scourge.