Why the Fight Against AIDS Is Not Over

Dec. 1, 2009 — -- During my visit to Zimbabwe at the beginning of this year, I had the chance to meet people infected with HIV and their families. I will never forget the old woman I met in Lower Gweru in rural Zimbabwe. She showed me her house and I met several young children from her family. The woman explained that she and her husband were the only adult survivors after all her children had died of AIDS.

Now she was caring for 16 grandchildren. The oldest, who was 13, had already tested HIV positive and was under treatment with anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. She was very grateful for the support she got and the treatment provided for her children by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), but it was by far not all she needed.

At the time of my visit, the world was talking about the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. Although that outbreak was the largest ever recorded, in terms of human loss it lagged far behind the real medical problem of the country. Within the space of just two weeks, more people died of AIDS than during the whole six months of the cholera outbreak. Every day, 400 people in Zimbabwe die of the disease.