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The history of AIDS and
how you can help
2
February 2010
Friends,
A
colleague recently found a Blog, under the title of UNAIDS, that sets
the historical background to the discovery and development of AIDS
and the efforts to combat it. It is a little bit lengthy but do
please find a minute to read it and feel free to circulate it
widely.
Best
wishes to you all
Peter
Sotheran:
http://aids- resources. blogspot. com/2006/ 04/short- history-of-
unaids-and- related.html
Some key
aspects are:
1959 - The
first specimen of the
human
immunodeficiency
virus was
detected the Belgian Congo.
1981
- The first clinical evidence of the disease that
became known as
acquired
immunodeficiency
syndrome
(AIDS).
1983
- Luc Montagnier isolated lymphadenopathy-
associated virus that became known as human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) and a heterosexual AIDS epidemic was revealed in Central
Africa.
1984
- Robert Gallo identified HIV as the cause of AIDS.
1985
- The global scope of the growing epidemic became
manifest and at least one case of HIV has been reported in each
region of the world.
1987 - The
World Health Organisation (WHO ) established the Special Programme
on AIDS.
AIDS became the first disease ever debated on the floor of
the United Nations General Assembly.
1988
- WHO declared 1 December as World AIDS Day.
1991
- The red ribbon became the international symbol of
AIDS awareness.
1994
- The first treatment regimen to reduce
mother-to-child HIV transmission.
1996 -
Evidence of the efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy is
presented. Brazil became the first developing country to provide
anti-retroviral therapy through its public health system.
1996
- The
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS became operational (UNAIDS).
UNAIDS brought together the efforts and resources of ten UN system
organisations (UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO,
WHO and the World Bank) in the response to help the world prevent
new HIV infections, care for people living with HIV and mitigate the
impact of the epidemic.
1999
- The first trial of a potential HIV vaccine in a
developing country started in Thailand.
The UN
Millennium Development Goal 6
is to Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases and with two
specific targets :
(i)
Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and
(ii) Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS
for all those who need it.
Rotary International
has responded to the challenge:
1988
- a member of the Rotary Club of Los Altos, California, told his
club that his son Steve was dying from AIDS. A few months later a
club member contracted HIV from a tainted blood transfusion. Steve
Angius died in 1989 and the club member in 1992. The club made a
video about AIDS victims around the world and more than 25,000
copies have been distributed in seven languages.
1993
- At a Rotary International Board meeting in March 1993 it was
recognised that the HIV virus is a pandemic disease.
2002
- Past RI President Bhichai Rattakul asked Marion Bunch to put
together a plan to help African children affected by AIDS.
2003 -
Rotary Fellowship
for Fighting AIDS
was formed.
2005 - Fellowship
was changed to the
Rotarians For Fighting
AIDS Action Group. The RFFA signature-projects are Orphan
Rescue, Kidz Clubs and ORK.
2008
- RFFA
initiated what developed to become RI's largest ever matching grant
mission joining a 70 strong team drawn from 14 countries for the
medical attention in the slums of Nairobi.
Many Rotary Clubs and Districts also have projects (Soul of Africa,
Rotary's Africa Hope, etc.) but not necessarily under the umbrella
of RFFA
A Summary of the statistical data is:
-
Total 33.4 million
people living with HIV in 2008. (estimates 31.1 - 35.8 million.)
-
Total 2.7 million
people newly infected with HIV in 2008. (2.4 - 3.0 million.)
-
Total 2.0 million
AIDS-related deaths in 2008. (1.7 - 2.4 million.)
Please
share this information with your Rotary Club and your friends and
encourage everyone to visit the new website at
www.rffa.org where you can offer online support for
Orphan Rescue, Kidz
Clubs and the work of RFFA.
Peter is Past President of
the Guisborough & Gt. Ayton Rotary Club, D1030 (UK) and he recently
wrote of his participation in the Medical Mission to Kenya
with Charmaine White as follows:
| I
was privileged to be one of the team during
the huge Kenya Mission in September 2008. It
brought home to me the esteem and respect in
which RI is held by non-Rotarians. It has a
reputation that we must guard and enhance at
all costs.
The
purpose of the mission was to identify and
treat AIDS victims. To attract them we
offered free medical, optical and dental
treatment to children and to females up to
the age of 25. I met AIDS-sufferers, orphans
and young mothers who had nothing. To see
the immediate impact on the quality of their
lives as we delivered the medical, optical
and dental services was truly rewarding.
MOMENTS THAT TOUCHED YOUR HEART . . .
We hade moments of tragedy, moments that
made us smile and moments that touched our
hearts.
A
young man was brought in with multiple
lacerations to his neck and torso, the
victim of a knife attack. His needs were
beyond the simple resources we had at the
camp so we med-evacced him in a 4×4 (SUV) to
the nearest Emergency Room. Sadly his
injuries proved fatal.
Thomas was a 12 year old who arrived in the
clinic rolling his eyes in agony and
clutching his stomach. “Where does it hurt?”
asked the nurse.
“It’s my stomach, doctor.”
“When did the pain start?”
“Err, tomorrow.” Thomas wanted some
medication – any medication – that he could
sell as soon as he was out of the camp!
The
triage nurses spotted a girl of about 8
years wandering about totally lost and her
spirits obviously broken. On her back was an
18 month old infant. On investigation they
were the two survivors of their family.
Father had gone, mother died of AIDS and the
girl was doing her best to care for the
infant.
DIGNITY AND PRIDE . . .
The patients lived in metal shanties with
earth floors, no santitation or running
water. The population of the Mukuru slum is
around 750,000. Despite the appalling living
conditions these local people took pride in
their appearance, always showed a naturally
courtesy and carried themselves with pride
and dignity.
THE
OUTCOME . . .
In 10 working days, 11,000 patients passed
through triage and were treated in the
medical, optical and dental clinics. Several
hundred were referred to the government run
Voluntary Treatment and Counselling Clinics
that were sited alongside our three health
camps.
RFFA
was one of the initiators of the mission and
one of the principal mobilisation partners.
This really was Rotary Service of the
highest order.
Medical Mission to
Kenya |
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