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Published on: 5/2/2007
Last Visited: 5/2/2007
> Activist Susan Hunter speaks on HIV and AIDS
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HIV and AIDS will be the worst epidemic the human species has ever known, medical anthropologist and AIDS activist Susan Hunter said in a sobering Monday-evening lecture."Epidemics are socially generated; they are profoundly moral events," said Hunter whose talk concluded the 2006-07 A.R. Sanchez Distinguished Lecture Series at Texas A&M International University.
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Since 1989, Hunter has been an acclaimed international advocate for AIDS relief in developing societies.And in 2003, she published a book called "Black Death: AIDS in Africa."
Hunter conducted the world's first research on AIDS orphans in Uganda and has studied HIV/AIDS for UNICEF in eastern and southern Africa.
"The causes of all our major epidemics primarily come from ourselves , from forces of discrimination, politics and choice in our society," Hunter said, referring to the lack of women's rights and widespread taboos surrounding the discussion of sex and using of condoms.
In Africa, the biggest risk factor for a woman is her husband, she said.
"Sex is a risky business, and only 10 percent of the world's population knows how to properly protect itself," she said, noting that the primary transmission of HIV/AIDS is through heterosexual sex.
She said that other common transmission methods include tainted blood transfusions, homosexual sex, prison sex and intravenous drug use.
Hunter focused on the severity of the HIV/AIDS viral epidemic in Africa, Asia and the United States, and also looked at its social, political and economic impact.
The spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide is now growing fastest among women and young people, "a scary trend" that does not bode well for the future, she said.
"Sixty percent of all new infections are now occurring in the 15-to-24- year-old group," Hunter said.
For an example, she cited a report presented in Geneva last year showed that in the state of Lesotho in South Africa, 37 percent of all girls aged 13 to 19 are now infected with HIV.
Ever since the first case was diagnosed in the 1980s, an estimated 44 million people across the globe have died from the virus that has no known vaccine or cure.
United Nations AIDS statistics project that 47 million people around the world are currently infected with the disease, with 19,000 new infections occurring daily, Hunter said.
Conservative UN estimates show that by 2010, 55 million humans will have died from the disease, and 66 million will be infected.
Only two other events in recorded human history have killed more people: the Bubonic Plague of the 1300s and 1400s, and the death of millions of Native Americans from diseases brought by Spaniards and other Europeans when they arrived in North America.
In just four short years, however, "HIV/AIDS will have killed more people than these two previous events in history," Hunter said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, alone, nearly 10 percent of the entire population in that region will have died between 1980 and 2010, she said.
Disease: biggest killer
"We tend to think of war or genocide as having killed the most people, but it is disease," Hunter said.
"It also has the largest social impact well beyond war."
Hunter said she believes that political and moral choices perpetuate the HIV/AIDS global epidemic.
She said that as of 2006, an astounding 63 percent of those infected with the virus live in Africa, mainly in southern Africa.
"There are dreadful losses of teachers, medical personnel and skilled workers," Hunter said.
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Despite the relatively small percentage found in the United States, Hunter is quick to note that the AIDS/HIV problem in the United States is currently ranked as the 10th worst epidemic in the world.
AIDS/HIV in the U.S.
"We think we have such a sophisticated system, but when only 32 states report AIDS statistics to the federal government, we get a distorted view," she said, noting that minorities are at the highest risk for contracting the disease.
"So, we're seeing a socially patterned disease even in this country," she said.
Worldwide, one major factor for the spread of the disease "is a profound disrespect of women," she said.
About half of all women in developing countries suffer from domestic violence, and in the United States, it's still at about 20 percent.Hunter said.
"We are talking about deep social problems, and gender is critical when we're talking about HIV/AIDS," she said.
The United States also has the largest sex business in the world, Hunter said, importing an estimated 50,000 sex slaves and benefiting from a $10 billion market in pornography videos alone.
Alternatives
Hunter said that countries must invest more resources in prevention and care.
"There are nine ways known to prevent infection so we have lots to work with," she said.
Developing countries are often at a disadvantage because they often lack health centers, funds for anti-retroviral drugs and sufficient medical staff.
There's also a need for the "separation of disease prevention from religious beliefs," she said, "and consistent and concerted empowerment of women, including a respect for young people's needs."
Americans should also use their vote to elect officials who advocate for a comprehensive HIV/AIDS policy, she added.
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