A cure for AIDS

A few days ago, I saw a story on the news that researchers have found a possible cure for aids through the use of stem cells.  There's a man that they believe, so far, is cured.  I don't know why the media isn't making a bigger deal out it; you'd think it would be hugely celebrated. 

But moving on - it got me thinking a lot about some of the things I've heard people say or express about AIDS, and my own thoughts on it.  I've heard anger expressed that AIDS resulted from the union of two gay people and spread from there, and that AIDS is a scourge of the wicked.  I say it's hogswallup.  I haven't done extensive research myself, but I'm pretty sure that they traced its origin back to human-ape contact in South Africa.  (Might've been South America, I don't remember.)

As to the "scourge of the wicked" thing.  Well.  There is so much more that comes into play with those affected by AIDS.  For one, unsanitary medical practices.  Drug use is a big one.  Statistics will obviously vary among demographics and parts of the world, but consider this statistic about Myanmar:

A report from the United Nations International Drug Control

Program states that 74.3% of all tested drug users, 9% of the

prostitutes, 0.5% of blood donors and 1.4% of pregnant women in

Myanmar were HIV-positive (13).*

STOP READING HERE if you are too sensitive to the plights of the innocent, because this is really sad, ok?

I remember how affected I was when, at 19, I saw a special on TV about the child sex trade in Southeast Asia.  It was the first time such notions had ever entered my realm, and it really shook me.  I later did some research on it for a college english paper, and learned that the child sex trade is one of the largest contributors to the spread of AIDS in the world.  The article at the link below sums up most completely the stuff that I learned while researching for my paper.  It's very informative, with regards to how the women and children end up in that situation, and why it happens, and what is being done to stop it.

http://www1.american.edu/ted/myansex.htm

People choose children instead of adults, for religious or superstitious reasons, thinking that they are pure because of their virginity, when in reality they are only marketed as virgins.  Some believe that if they have aids, sleeping with a virgin (or child) will cure them.  There are laws to stop it, and many groups are fighting for the children and for human rights, but there is so much corruption with law enforcement, and even governments are reluctant to comply with the law too much because the sex tourism is such a large part of their economy.  In the meantime, the children are the real victims of all of this.

The exploitation of boys and girls exemplify the single most

unsavory element of the worldwide growth in the sex trade: an

explosion in child prostitution, driven in part by the fear of

AIDS. Since 1985, child prostitution has escalated dramatically

worldwide. In the developing world the number of child prostitutes

are staggering: an estimated 800,000 underage prostitutes in

Thailand, 400,000 in India, 250,000 in Brazil and 60,000 in the

Philippines.(25) The newest international sites for child

prostitution are Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China and the Dominican

Republic.*

It's just something that is a huge, and very heartbreaking problem, and I think awareness is needed, although it is hard to figure out what a single person, like me, could do about it.  As far as AIDS, there is so much more to consider than "wickedness," or the "bad" things a person must've done to contract the disease.  There are so many innocent victims in the world, millions.  Any death or infection - no matter by whom or for what reason - is tragic.  It will probably be many years yet that a cure for AIDS - if that is what this is - is widely available for all who've suffered.  But I do hope that will someday be so available.

*Both quotes are taken from the article at this link: http://www1.american.edu/ted/myansex.htm