On December 1 of each year, World AIDS Day reminds people everywhere that the AIDS crisis is far from over. Founded in 1988 by the World Health Organization, the theme of this year’s day is “The Time To Act Is Now!”
While some statistics show real declines in deaths and infection rates, especially among babies and adult women, new figures demonstrate how the world pandemic of AIDS is still out of control and killing people around the world, especially young people in oppressed nations.
At a press conference on Nov. 27 in South Africa, the United Nations/UNICEF agency revealed that AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African teenagers and the second most common killer for adolescents across the globe, the United Nations’ agency for children said on Friday.
Despite gains made among adults and babies with HIV, the number of 10-to-19-year-olds dying from AIDS-related diseases has tripled since 2000.
In addition, teenagers born without the disease are also vulnerable, and infections rates among those aged 15 to 19 now add up to 26 new infections every hour with 70 percent of those infected girls.
According to the UN report, children born with the virus have been dying in their teens because there has not been enough treatment aimed at adolescents. Only a third of the 2.6 million African children infected with HIV have had access to treatment.
How and why could this happen? Why are African youth dying from AIDS-related illnesses at this time, so far into the epidemic, where life-saving medications are available? The answer to these and other questions lies in the long history of millions suffering from AIDS in a world where 33.3 million people are currently living with HIV.
All the contradictions of capitalism, driven by greed, racism, homophobia, sexism – and the drive for super profits by big pharmaceuticals – have created the conditions of human catastrophe for people in Africa, Asia, and throughout the globe. Imperialist policies towards Africa and elsewhere dictate public health policies for oppressed nations, leading to unimaginable suffering and loss of life, in this case young lives.
Death from AIDS, if detected early on after initial exposure, is avoidable when treatments are available. But rather than distributing the medications to everyone in need, policies dictate that the rules of capitalism, in this case, pay or suffer, be protected and upheld.
There is no other cause of the calamity other than the profits-above-all policies of the U.S. imperialist system and its allies and comprador lackies, which makes sure that big pharma and healthcare for profits are protected at the expense of the people.
The very idea that life-saving medications should require payment from poor and oppressed people — that it’s perfectly OK to deny comfort, care, or a cure for anyone for that matter, is ludicrous. This idea, the source of so much brutality and suffering, is promoted constantly by big business and their flunky media outlets. Any sane society would recognize that healthcare is a fundamental right for everyone, and the responsibility of government.
That AIDS is still a mega pandemic exposes sadly the true nature of capitalism and imperialism, with all its criminal policies and brutal methods. Only socialism can fix this mess, stop the suffering, and establish sane and scientific models of care for all.
