HIV and Aids: A Brief History

Aid's first reared its head in Zambia in 1984 and for many years knowledge was kept hidden away from the people in the country and from the world by the government at the time. A notably exception, in 1987, was the then president/dictator/leader whatever announcing that his son had died from the disease. There was no mention of the disease in the countries press and the word on the street wasn't heard.

By the 1990's however, up to 20% of the country were infected with the HIV virus as the epidemic took hold, at which stage the World Health Organisation got nvolved and a National Aids Advisory Council in Zambia was set up.

From 2000, political attitudes changed and the problem of Aids, along with other sexually transmitted diseases, made,  or forced its way up the political priority ladder. It had to. People were dying on the streets and in the bars, left right and centre, rich and poor, young and old, men and women. The opportunity for  a legally formed body to apply for world bank grants didn't do any harm. There again, in some ways, arguable it did. Although the organisation in the fight against the disease began to take shape, discussion increased and millions of pounds were got obtained and spent, the rate of infection and death didn't really change. Corruption, on many levels, didn't and still doesn't help.

Today, stabilization is mentioned and the word banded around but this is notoriously difficult to count and calculate with confidence and I suspect is sometimes rhetoric tailored to fit political agendas, whatever they happen to be at any given time, in Zambia and the rest of the world. Aids is widespread, indiscriminate, but as is always the case, some areas of society suffer more. It's like that goddess of wealth, Lady Luck again, spreading her wares with abundance. Urban dwellers, the poor in the compounds, women and vulnerable children, those not able to read and write, it's the same old story with new infections.

There is a load, a countryful/cultureful, of issues related to Aids, its prevalence, victims, consequences and the struggle to protect people from it in. I've been busy filling in forms for Goal Zambia over the last month or so in a effort to get to the point whereby I can start raising some more money for the affiliated football academies over there. Much of their work involves Aids and promoting/educating people in ways to avoid infection. Hopefully Goal Zambia can play a part in that, or at least lend a hand in the future.

HIV/Aids Centre-one of many-many closed down