Mennonite
Central
Committee

Greater efforts lead to progress on AIDS

Tim Shenk
November 20, 2006

The world is witnessing unprecedented growth in efforts to stop the spread of AIDS and care for people affected by the disease, according to Sarah Adams, AIDS program coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

International donors are giving more than ever for AIDS care and medical research, while more and more churches and grass-roots organizations are responding to AIDS in their communities.

However, there is also a growing realization of the difficulty and complexity of stopping AIDS, which has killed more than 25 million people since it was first diagnosed in 1981, Adams says. Every year, about 4 million people are newly infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

"I think globally, the world is owning up to the problem and also realizing that it's not an easy problem to solve," Adams says. "It's rooted in issues of poverty and gender issues and personal behavior, and those aren't issues that are easily solved."

Although medications can now extend the life of someone with HIV for decades, the vast majority of people who need these medications still do not receive them because of poverty, a lack of medical services or ignorance. In fact, health experts say only one-tenth of people with HIV even know they're infected.

As part of MCC's "Generations at Risk" AIDS program, which supports 60 partner organizations responding to AIDS around the world, MCC provides tens of thousands of rapid HIV tests that are administered for free. HIV tests not only alert a person to the need for medical care but provide an opportunity for counseling about behavioral changes necessary to avoid spreading HIV to others.

"Tests are a big tool in stopping the spread of HIV," Adams says.

Adams also says there is a new willingness to talk about AIDS in churches in many countries despite taboos about sexual behavior. At a global convention on AIDS in August, Adams helped lead a workshop titled "The Pastor Said What?" on helpful and unhelpful responses to AIDS in churches.

While churches have sometimes discouraged frank discussions of AIDS and stigmatized people with the disease, Adams believes that many Christians are interested in being a part of the worldwide AIDS response.

"When you look at the numbers, there are 50 Christians in the world for every one AIDS patient," Adams says. "So if each of us could take care of one-fiftieth of the needs of one AIDS patient, the disease would be taken care of."

 

 

World AIDS Day is Dec. 1.

Tim Shenk is a writer for MCC communications.