Dear Readers,
God Bless You!
In 1987, WHO recognized the need to do something special for a disease that must be among the Top 3 deadliest ever. They declared that 1st December each year will be celebrated as World Aids Day. The objective was to wake us out of our slumber and let us recognize that AIDS is here to stay and annihilate. Alas, we have relegated WAD to the league of all other World and National days when events are organized just to play to the gallery.
The change in humans is often paranoid. Many traditional myths have been proved to be baseless in the last century, the century of Science. Still, the taboos associated to these beliefs continue. Whenever tradition is contradicted by Religion and Science, we defeat the latter. Often defeat of science leads to a mockery of common sense. Progress in the fight against AIDS and similar killers is suffering from such blind faith in Religious Traditions.
People in majority do not want to believe that promiscuous behaviour is not the only source of acquiring this virus. Research clearly tells that the exchange of the contaminated fluid between a victim and a supplier is the real cause. Unsafe sex is just one of the many items on this list. You mention AIDS and people gallop away akin to the Derby Winner. You become a social outcast, moral criminal and destined to die in isolation. Nobody wants to admit such people in their sphere of life, more often than not to uphold their dogmas.
True it is that AIDS is still incurable and leads to a premature death of its victims. But, the patient can live a normal life by following a very strict semi-treatment plan. His/her endeavour to do so is burdened by the neglect he/she invites from people whom he/she would like to love and care for him/her. Mental disintegration is what a HIV-positive suffers more strongly than the biological decay and vulnerabilities. This is where we as a society have to grow up.
Every year millions are spent on the treatment and rehabilitation of AIDS patients. Several programs are conducted to raise the awareness on the World AIDS Day. The effect is there for all to see. Things are improving on the medicine front; social acceptance is on the rise; more and more healthcare systems are gearing up to address this endemic; overall outlook is impressive.
Yet, the scheme of things cannot be as effective as they want if we ,as a stakeholder of all things done for human welfare, choose to take easier way outs. Our skills and knowledge must match the levels required to prevent AIDS virus from spreading from a patient to others, from being acquired through negligent medical practices and from weakening the immune system of a patient's body beyond repair.
Let us act.
Always yours,
Pankaj Dwivedi.
God Bless You!
In 1987, WHO recognized the need to do something special for a disease that must be among the Top 3 deadliest ever. They declared that 1st December each year will be celebrated as World Aids Day. The objective was to wake us out of our slumber and let us recognize that AIDS is here to stay and annihilate. Alas, we have relegated WAD to the league of all other World and National days when events are organized just to play to the gallery.
The change in humans is often paranoid. Many traditional myths have been proved to be baseless in the last century, the century of Science. Still, the taboos associated to these beliefs continue. Whenever tradition is contradicted by Religion and Science, we defeat the latter. Often defeat of science leads to a mockery of common sense. Progress in the fight against AIDS and similar killers is suffering from such blind faith in Religious Traditions.
People in majority do not want to believe that promiscuous behaviour is not the only source of acquiring this virus. Research clearly tells that the exchange of the contaminated fluid between a victim and a supplier is the real cause. Unsafe sex is just one of the many items on this list. You mention AIDS and people gallop away akin to the Derby Winner. You become a social outcast, moral criminal and destined to die in isolation. Nobody wants to admit such people in their sphere of life, more often than not to uphold their dogmas.
True it is that AIDS is still incurable and leads to a premature death of its victims. But, the patient can live a normal life by following a very strict semi-treatment plan. His/her endeavour to do so is burdened by the neglect he/she invites from people whom he/she would like to love and care for him/her. Mental disintegration is what a HIV-positive suffers more strongly than the biological decay and vulnerabilities. This is where we as a society have to grow up.
Every year millions are spent on the treatment and rehabilitation of AIDS patients. Several programs are conducted to raise the awareness on the World AIDS Day. The effect is there for all to see. Things are improving on the medicine front; social acceptance is on the rise; more and more healthcare systems are gearing up to address this endemic; overall outlook is impressive.
Yet, the scheme of things cannot be as effective as they want if we ,as a stakeholder of all things done for human welfare, choose to take easier way outs. Our skills and knowledge must match the levels required to prevent AIDS virus from spreading from a patient to others, from being acquired through negligent medical practices and from weakening the immune system of a patient's body beyond repair.
Let us act.
Always yours,
Pankaj Dwivedi.
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