|
|
|||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
News Search
|
|
November 14, 2002, Scotsman A DEADLY COMBINATION OF KILLERS Gethin Chamberlain DRESSED in a tiny, torn red dress, Ku Nthata looks no older than seven or eight, less than half her real age. Her parents died of AIDS and now she has the full-blown disease. Like hundreds of other children in the drought-stricken Ntchisi region of Malawi, she wonders how long she might live. "After my parents died, I stayed with relatives in another district. Most of the time, I have got malaria or a chest infection, but I am getting used to the illnesses," she says. "I was told in the hospital that I was sick. I was told I was suffering from what my parents died from. My father died from AIDS. I know that the same thing can happen to me, but I am not worried, I just like living like anyone else. I go to school, I am in grade four, but I don't think I'll finish school. Maybe I may die anytime." AIDS is playing a deadly role in southern Africa's drought, which threatens the lives of 18 million people. Weakened by hunger, people are becoming more susceptible to the infections that come with HIV and AIDS. As the famine takes hold, aid agencies warn that the victims will begin to succumb. In Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe - the countries at worst risk - anywhere from 13 to 33 per cent of adults are thought to be HIV-positive. Retroviral drugs are too expensive, unavailable or difficult to distribute, but the biggest problem is the reluctance of the population to talk about sex. Malawi's government has decided to tackle the problem by promoting the idea of safe sex, but the message is difficult to get across in rural areas. The truth in Malawi and many other affected countries is that people really do die of ignorance. That ignorance has created a generation of orphans, orphans such as Maligerita Sautsani, 16. Maligerita would like to be a doctor when she grows up, but it might already be too late for that. Her parents died of AIDS within a week of each other when she was just six. She was probably infected at birth. Since the death of her parents, she has been raised by an aunt. She might be family, she is another mouth to feed at a time when her aunt does not have enough food for her own five children, let alone those of a relative who died from a disease no-one will talk about. "There is no food at home for me so I come here. They treat me differently, I am not given clothes as the others are or food or supplies for school. I don't get enough," Maligerita says. "When I see my friends staying with their families, sometimes I miss my parents and feel bad. I can't forget my parents, they are always in my mind." To eat, she goes alone every day to Kayayo Anglican Church, for the maize porridge boiled up by nuns. "There are some sad moments and some good moments. When I am at school I am happy with my friends but each time something bad happens I feel sad. I think it is because I am an orphan, that is why I am being treated this way. But I like reading and I like playing, these things make me happy. "Sometimes I visit the district hospital and when I look at the doctors there I really have the strong desire to become a doctor." Clutching her books, she is keen to learn more, but she is weak and hungry and realistic enough to know that her greatest desire might only be a dream. She is typical of many children in the feeding programme - orphans taken in by family members when AIDS killed their parents. Other famine-stricken areas of Africa are also struggling to cope with the growing AIDS problem. A recent study in Ethiopia by the Ethio-Netherlands AIDS Research Project suggested that by 2024, AIDS will claim the lives of half a million of Addis Ababa's people, an eighth of the population. Three million Ethiopians are infected. According to the charity World Vision, AIDS killed 2.3 million Africans last year and about 3.4 million people were newly infected with HIV. "When famine comes along, if you are impaired with HIV or AIDS then you are fighting two things," said a spokesman, Graeme Young. "You can't tend to your crops, you can't tend to your family, you start suffering from other diseases so you are weakened. It takes a bad situation and it multiplies it and makes it much, much worse." Life expectancy has fallen from 44 to 39 in just ten years and up to ten times as many teenage girls as boys are HIV-positive. For Maligerita and Ku Nthata, the statistics reflect a personal tragedy. Coupled with the coming famine, for southern Africa they could mean disaster.
|
|
||||
|
................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
|||||||
