"In A Perfect World, Diseases Like AIDS is Not Allowed"
Today is World AIDS Day, a chance for people all over the world to help raise awareness and to unite in the fight against HIV. Today especially, I’m reminded of some of the young people from Kenya back in 2013 when we asked them to tell us about their perfect world and many of them talked about eradicating HIV and AIDS.
Stella said, “In a perfect world diseases like AIDS is NOT allowed.”
I think that is the perfect way to describe the end of a disease that has killed more than 32 million people around the world since the epidemic started in the early 1980s, and has been one of the world’s worst pandemics. We need to work to make sure it is not allowed.
In some ways, it makes me sad that any young person would include this in their idea of a perfect world, because it means they are aware of the devastation that HIV causes and possibly have first-hand experience of the disease. But it also made me proud that this younger generation is growing up aware of HIV, fighting against the stigma that still holds back diagnosis and treatment for many, and striving for a world where HIV does not exist.
Kenya in particular has been hit hard by HIV and AIDS, and is one of the 10 countries with the largest epidemic. However, over the past decade the country has seen huge advances towards beating the disease. Since 2010 there has been a 55 percent decrease in AIDS-related deaths and Kenya has been a huge success story for the prevention of HIV. It was one of the first countries to approve the use of preventative drugs and, as a result, new infections have fallen dramatically in recent years. Only this year, at the International AIDS Society conference, promising results from a study in rural Kenya and Uganda show that preventative therapies are having a better-than-expected impact.
I hope these advancements mean that we are already some way to realising the perfect world that this Kenyan student shared back in 2013. And perhaps she might even become part of the scientists, researchers and doctors and nurses that are working to beat HIV in her country. It feels genuinely possible that her generation will be the ones to win this fight.
When I asked students from the same school in Kenya in 2016 what they believed they could do, so many told me they believed they could be doctors and nurse and save lives. Like Violah, aged 13, who said:
I believe I can be a doctor. A doctor who will treat people equally, truly and nicely. I will make sure people are happy with my care. I believe I can make every person happy and comfortable. I will take care of people nicely. I believe I can.
On World AIDS Day, I feel inspired that young people are striving for a world where diseases don’t exist and every person who needs healthcare receives it from doctors. As we approach the end of a year that no one had predicted, and the world is facing a new pandemic, which in turn makes those living with HIV face additional challenges, it is this hope in the next generation that makes me positive for the future.