There is no doubt that HIV is one of the major pandemics in the world. We have investigated several main causes of this pandemic and we have come up with possible prevention measures. However, according to current health reports, the disease of HIV is still spreading at an alarming rate and the treatments are either ineffective or hard to reach by people who really need them. By conventional economical theory, the investment in education or any other encouragement to human capital/stock increase total productivity and improve general economy of a nation.
However, this is not the case in Zimbabwe. It is because the HIV pandemic in this country used to be so severe that people were dying much faster than they could be trained into productive members in society. In such harsh environment, any kind of contingency plan including education and health care plan is pointless since the country cannot even support its citizens’ physiological needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
When a region is suffering from massive population loss, human’s basic survival instinct start emerging and as a result of this, people reproduce more offspring. Moreover, because the HIV is a sexually transmitted disease, the more people reproduce, the faster the disease spreads. Eventually, the situation will become a never ending loop where massive population die-out shall have become a routine. In recent years, several national governments have been working with NGOs to make a few progressive changes in Zimbabwe to cure or mitigate the current HIV pandemic.
Prevention measures for HIV in Zimbabwe and the rest of slow developing countries are given the first priority by health care professionals. Most of these prevention measures and policies are carried out by the collaborative work of governments and several NGOs and the results are very promising. Moreover, although the situation of HIV pandemic is improving in a positive way, scientists around the world are developing several experimental treatments that can effectively work in a country like Zimbabwe. Below are a few factors which can ease the financial crisis or physical/psychological problems for people are already infected with HIV:
Financial solution: land acquisition and redistribution
People need financial income and basic nutritional supply to survive. People who live in a country where they cannot support their basic needs can hardly consider treating HIV as their first priority. One of the most effective ways of solving the two problems is to provide HIV infected citizens with their own ways of achieving financial independence. The process of acquiring agricultural lands, which mostly are relic of colonial era, and redistributing them to people who are really in need them is showing promising results. This policy has been successfully implemented in some parts of Zimbabwe, and once the civilians’ lifestyles get back on track, an implementation of a more proactive practice will have high successful rate.
Medical solution: Vitamin supplement
Though HIV is still incurable in modern days, one of the problems that people in slow developing countries face is high death rate from HIV due to the lack of funds for purchasing effective medication and treatment. Thus, scientists have set up some experiments in Vietnam and realized that by giving the right dosage of vitamin supplements to the victims of HIV, their syndrome become controllable. Since vitamin supplements are cheap and widely available, this treatment method has a high potential to help thousands of people to ease the pain of their syndromes.
Solution for improving quality of life: education and psychological consultant
HIV victims are suffering from not only physiological pain but also face discriminations from both friends and families. A study done in Jamaica about sexual stigma and sympathy towards HIV victims showed that people offer their help differently towards different HIV infected people. Moreover, the report also showed that sex workers, drug addicts and homosexual people are receiving less sympathy and attention that are in fact required together with close medical attention for preventing the spread of HIV. Education is the key solution to this problem.
Eliminating public stigma towards the minority requires extensive public education, introduction of social and sexual studies in schools and creating public awareness through public service announcements. In addition, medical scientists had conducted an experiment on school teenagers with a social study project called PhotoVoice in Botswana. The assignment required each student to tell a story about the pictures they took for victims of HIV. As the result, this technique has been proven effective for raising the awareness of the danger of HIV.