Thokozani Ncikazi, News24 User
It's very said that after so many years of Aids' existence, nothing solid has been done so far to effectively deal with the disease.
Over the years Aids has risen to extreme proportions in the world especially in Africa. South Africa is leading the continent by 5.5 million infected and rising every day.
Let's acknowledge the fact that in South Africa a lot has been done to face this disease head on, from campaigns to advertising, theatre to the movies, music to poetry but nothing is helping. People continue having unprotected sex like never before. This is probably because the messages being sent are inert and highly predictable - people already know what the message is going to say even before it's delivered.
There is a need for change of strategies; a lot of money is being invested in different campaigns such as Love Life, Soul City, Komanani etc, but the stories they tell are the same every time.
The 5.5 million estimate of people infected is just the tip of the iceberg. If you consider the fact that there are people living with the virus but do not know and the fact that as we speak thousands are being infected. Both government and the people of South Africa dream of one day having an Aids free generation but that dream is a distant one.
Influences
The influence on the younger generation from the latest gadgets is also detrimental; although gadgets can be educational, one cannot emphasise enough the damage they have caused, from cellphones to a television set in your child's room.
Children as young as nine years old start experimenting with sex based on what they see on television and read on cellphones. Ten years down the line that nine year old will probably be infected with HIV, destroying the government vision of an Aids free generation. Ten years from now numbers will have multiplied.
The issue of use of condoms has also been highly emphasised as the second alternative after abstinence. Judging from the latest statistics it seems condoms are not frequently used either. What happened a few months ago when defective condoms were found has left a lot of people confused about whether using a condom is ideal. Although the government justified the issue by recalling the affected consignment, the public is still not sure.
Previous conflicting views within the government itself did not help the situation; people on the ground are still very confused as to what to use to avoid infection for those not infected and what medicines to use for those infected. There is still a very few number of people on ARVs too as confusion rages as to whether infected people must take drugs at the early stages of infection or not.
All these factors contribute to high confusion on what actions the public should exercise to remain safe and unless the confusion is stopped, things will continue to get worse.
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.