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Cuthbert Mavheko
On Saturday, December 1, Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Aids Day.
This is an opportunity for people all over the world to unite in the fight against the epidemic, show support for those living with HIV/Aids and observe a moment of silence in remembrance of millions of people the world over, who have succumbed to the condition.
The venue for this year’s national commemorations is Rujeko Secondary School in Mazowe District.
The District, which is in Mashonaland Central, has been chosen as the venue for the commemorations because it has a high HIV prevalence of 18.6 percent.
The theme for 2018 – Know Your Status – comes against a backdrop of alarming reports that hordes of young girls across the length and breadth of the country are selling their bodies for “peanuts” in order to survive and, in the process, exposing themselves to HIV infection.
HIV remains one of the world’s most significant public health challenges, particularly in low and middle – income countries. Scientists have spent the last three decades trying to find a cure for the pandemic, which affects an estimated 1.3 million Zimbabweans and so far only anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has been proven to suppress the amount of virus in the body.
The battle against HIV/Aids has fired the imagination of governments all over the world and mobilised their will as few other diseases have done, and produced one of the greatest man efforts in contemporary history.
However, the heart – wrenching reality is that a cure for the deadly pandemic remains elusive to this day. Like the influenza virus, HIV is constantly changing itself. This mystifying aspect of its nature renders it difficult for scientists to pin it down or devise a vaccine to obliterate it.
Since 1984 when HIV was confirmed as the causative agent of Aids, an avalanche of drugs has surfaced, grabbing the headlines of local/international newspapers and magazines.
Cognisant of the immense monetary rewards that awaits the person who discovers a cure for HIV/Aids, a myriad of scientists, herbalists, prophets and traditional healers have, over the years, hogged the limelight claiming to have found a cure for the deadly disease.
In 1990, Kenyan scientists stunned the world when they unveiled a new drug, Kemron, which they claimed cured HIV/Aids. At the time the killer disease was still a mystery and researchers were on the horns of a dilemma as regards to how to deal with it.
The development of Kemron was spear-headed by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) under its then director, Dr Davy Koech, and lead researcher Professor Arthur Obel.
So expectant was the world that many people expressed optimism that Kemron would offer relief from the devastating epidemic. After publication of the initial results in two medical journals, Kemron was introduced in a public ceremony that was attended by Mr Daniel Arap Moi, then president of Kenya, Dr Koech and Professor Obel.
Following the “discovery” of Kemron, legions of patients from many countries, including the U.S.A, came to Kenya to seek treatment.
The drug received so much publicity in the world media that the U.S’s most prominent basketball player, Magic Johnson, who had declared earlier that he was HIV – positive, was reportedly put on the drug.
Be that as it may, clinical trials of the drug, which were conducted by internationally recognised HIV/Aids experts and health officials in the U.S.A, rubbished claims by Kenyan scientists that Kemron cured HIV/Aids.
This dashed to oblivion the hopes and expectations of many an HIV/Aids patient.
Other HIV/Aids drugs that have been discovered over the years include AZT (licensed in 1981), Borobi and Mocrea, to mention just a few.
All these drugs were bought by HIV/Aids positive people at astronomic costs, only to pale into oblivion as the truth finally dawned that the drugs were quite useless.
Not so long ago, Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries leader, Prophet Walter Magaya, stunned the nation with his sensational claims that he had found a cure for HIV/Aids. The charismatic evangelist claimed that Aguma, a herbal concoction, had medical properties that can cure HIV/Aids.
It remains to be seen whether the drug is a genuine cure for HIV/Aids or just a ridiculous farce.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which is responsible for qualifying medicines before use, said there is no known and proven cure for HIV/Aids at the moment.
Today mankind is bobbing up and down in a treacherous sea of confusion and utter consternation in the face of the rapidly growing HIV/Aids pandemic.
The reasons for this sad state of affairs are varied. Among them is the fear that a cure for the pandemic may never be found and that scientists may know enough about HIV and its modes of transmission for people to avoid being infected.
While these apprehensions are justified, it certainly would be foolhardy to negate the fact that the medical fraternity has made tremendous progress in learning the major ways by which HIV is disseminated.
Scientific studies have proved that HIV is not spread through insect bite, casual, social or work contact, although proper precautions should always be exercised when dealing closely with HIV positive people such as intimate sexual contact with an infected person or contact with infected bodily fluids by means that allow the virus to enter the bloodstream.
These fluids include semen, blood, vaginal and rectal secretions and breast milk. Amniotic and spinal cord fluids can also contain HIV and can pose a risk to health care personnel exposed to them.
It is important to mention that when HIV first emerged, living with the virus was a death sentence that carried tremendous social stigma.
Researchers have since studied the transmission of HIV extensively and developed treatments that allow people who are infected to live long, productive lives if they adhere to regular anti-retroviral therapy (ART).
It has been confirmed that people on ART have very little risk of transmitting the virus through sex. Further to this, they are less likely to experience most symptoms and complications associated with HIV/Aids.
As a sign out, I must point out that today condoms are a central strategy by the Government and NGOs in the fight against HIV/Aids. However, the honest truth is that condoms are not effective 100 percent.
Studies conducted in the U.S a few years ago established that the HIV bug, which is 1/25th the width of a sperm, can pass easily through even the smallest gaps in condoms. In light of this, complete sexual abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage by both spouses remains the only way that is fool-proof in reducing infection by HIV.
*Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance journalist based in Bulawayo. He has contributed articles and short-stories to the Chronicle, Sunday News and various other publications since 1995. He can be contacted via mobile phone 0773 963 448 or email [email protected]
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