When it comes to difficult situations, humanity excels like at no other time. We can adapt to the worst kind of places and conditions and evidence of this is scattered throughout history and across the world. An example of this close to home is that during World War Two, the denizens of London were bombed every evening for almost six months and still they went on as usual. We show our best sides when the odds are stacked against us.
In the same light, the Aids epidemic has shown a great deal of international coordination and genius. Yes, we’re not there yet and it’s called an epidemic for a reason but there’s not a doubt in this authors mind that we’re moving in the right direction.
In the next ten years it’s been estimated that as many as 25% of Africa’s whole population will die due to HIV/AIDS. This is a travesty the likes of which the worlds rarely seen but we’re working towards fixing it and ten, even twenty years ago the figures looked much worse.
Companies are working together with governments to find cost effective and easily deployable preventative measures for the disease. The main issue with Africa is its big and the population is fairly spread out and rural, which means that transport links aren’t great and actually reaching everyone in a country can take months. However, by combining treatments and working on ways of stopping the spread of HIV and other diseases rather than just curing them, progress is being made!
It’s been 25 years since the first World Aids Day and we’ve made progress, another 25 years and perhaps we’ll have this epidemic under control. Here’s to hoping!
