On Tuesday, researchers from the Medical Research Council released a report that estimated that by 2010, seven million South Africans will have died from AIDS.
Government officials in South Africa have dismissed the findings stating that the samples are not representative of the collective whole.
Apparently officials in South Africa are not aware of their own humanitarian disaster: The AIDS virus being transmitted at an alarming rate.
AIDS is not new to Americans.
Millions of people in America have been infected.
The difference in America, however, is that the funds are available to fight the disease and educate people about how to keep from transmitting the disease and protect themselves from it.
In South Africa, on the other hand, it’s a vicious cycle.
People infected with AIDS transmit it through unprotected sex and then give birth to children who are infected.
Education about prevention and contraceptives is not getting to people fast enough.
The MRC also determined that AIDS will account for one-third of all deaths in South Africa this year and two-thirds by 2010, unless there are “radical changes in personal behavior and more government action to fight the disease.”
Again, the response by the South African government is that the study is “badly flawed.”
Badly flawed?
A margin for error is present in all such research, unless researchers have found a way to eliminate it.
However, the South African government cannot credibly say that the researchers are off by 6 million people.
If they said that the research is badly flawed, that must mean the researchers are off by a significant amount.
So how many are they off by?
Four million? Three?
It is much more accurate to assume that the research would be off a few thousand or even a hundred thousand rather than several million.
Instead of refuting commissioned research, the South African government should accept the fact that AIDS is an epidemic.
It is running rampant and out of control in their country and that they need to take steps to correct the situation.
The MRC report estimated that 4.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV.
The number that have full-blown AIDS will undoubtedly grow exponentially if those infected go without treatment.
In America, medicine is readily available to suppress the HIV virus and people can continue to live productive lives while being careful not to transmit the disease to others.
An example of this is Magic Johnson. Although infected more than 10 years ago, he continues to live a productive and active life.
People in South Africa are not as lucky.
Their government underestimated the disease and what grave problems it posed for citizens.
For officials to say that the results are badly flawed it is almost as if they are saying that they have given up hope for their country and that they are not even willing to look at the researcher’s results and investigate if they are indeed true.
As long as the government in South Africa does not accept that 7 million citizens could be dead in nine years makes it as though the problem doesn’t exist.
But it does exist and people are still being infected because they don’t have birth control and they are not educated about the disease.
Of course there are underlying factors such as poverty that play into this scenario, but the government needs to be doing more about the problem, or at least something.
If the MRC’s predictions are correct, 7 million people will be absent from the earth in just a few years.
Couple this with the other humanitarian disasters that are occurring in countries around the world, there might not be anyone left.
Christine Owen, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at owenc@ulv.edu.
