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Sierra Leone |
AIDS
As the decades-old war comes to an end in Sierra Leone, the AIDS pandemic poses a nightmarish threat haunting the country
Prior to the war, AIDS was gradually spreading throughout Sierra Leone without attracting much attention. There were few reports of deaths from AIDS and this caused young people not to take the AIDS issue too seriously.
Once a war situation developed, several channels for the disease to spread where opened up. Victims began to abound. Thousands of young girls who were abducted and made «wives» in the rebel camps, ended up catching the virus. Those who were gang-raped in towns and villages became potential carriers.
When the civil war ended, the need to carry out a survey on the prevalence of the disease became absolutely necessary. In February this year, plans for a comprehensive national survey on the prevalence of AIDS, were discussed. The survey would be carried out by representatives from the Centre for Disease Control, based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA; the government of Sierra Leone; and the World Bank.
Awareness
In Freetown, an awareness seminar was organised in February this year. The US Ambassador to Sierra Leone noted that peace would be threatened by the prevalence of AIDS. He warned that if this threat posed by the pandemic is not taken seriously, it will overwhelm all the hard-won accomplishments of the past months. «We do not know how to cure AIDS», said the Ambassador, «but we do know how to prevent it». The Ambassador further stressed that, «the peace we cherish carries with it the seeds of a threat, which, if left unaddressed, will cause greater pain and suffering than the war which Sierra Leone has just left behind».
On the magnitude of the problem, the Ambassador said: «HIV/AIDS is much bigger than you think». He also suggested that, «business institutions should invest in awareness programmes, distributing condoms to employees, and talking frankly about subjects that we are usually not comfortable addressing». He recalled that when he was serving in Malawi, President Banda refused to acknowledge that AIDS existed in his country. «Today, Malawi has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS on the continent». The Ambassador warned that AIDS «does not respect educational qualifications and social status».
High cost of drugs
The biggest problem AIDS victims are grappling with, today, is the availability and affordability of retroviral drugs. These drugs are already available in limited quantities in Sierra Leone, but at a high cost. Considering that most of the population are reckoned to live on less than US $1 a day, it’s impossible for AIDS victims to purchase these drugs.
Miss Suad Deen Savage is the regional councillor of the National AIDS Control Program. She says: «Sierra Leoneans face the risk of dying because of the high cost of retroviral drugs». She suggests that AIDS victims should contact their relatives living abroad to help them purchase the drugs. She says, however, that «the Government is looking into the possibility of having the World Bank import drugs from South Africa, so that they can be given free to AIDS victims.
The conclusion of the war has brought about the re-integration of rebel fighters into the regular life of the nation. There is widespread fear that these people are potential carriers. A married woman expresses the current fears, thus: «Most of the girls who are presently wondering around the streets, may have been in the jungle. There is every likelihood that they have contracted AIDS while they were living in that particular situation.
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PeaceLink 2002 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement