2008 Woodie Awards
Real life lessons: African atrocities
Michael DeSumma
Issue date: 10/3/06 Section: News
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The West Chester University Office of Social Equity kicked off its fall lecture series last Wednesday with a presentation on the ever-growing problem of diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Fred Gage, WCU vice president of information systems, delivered the lecture as a means to illustrate the extent to which selected diseases have already affected Sub-Saharan Africa as well as discuss how they will impact its future populations.
Gage began the lecture talking about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in Africa and then moved on to discuss other diseases plaguing the continent such as tuberculosis, malaria and obstetric fistula.
When it came to the human impact that the AIDS virus has had in Africa, Gage was not brief in illustrating its effect on women and children. He showed viewers how African women ages 16 to 24 are now between two to six times more likely to develop AIDS and that the disease has had a profound effect on their life expectancy as well as their ability to conceive. However, Gage said the issue of AIDS is still approached with much "stigma" in Africa as some studies show 90 percent of HIV afflicted women were infected by their husbands.
He also highlighted the fact that recently Jacob Zuma, the deputy president of South Africa was acquitted of raping an HIV positive woman, enraged AIDS activists by saying that he didn't use a condom but took a shower afterwards.
African children have also become victims of AIDS according to Gage as they account for one in every six related deaths worldwide. He also added that other children have lost either one or both of their parents to the disease.
In addition to the human impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, Gage also discussed how the virus has caused over crowding in hospitals, adversely affected the environment, radically changed the population structure as well as put pressure on governmental policy.
Gage not only spoke about the dramatic effect AIDS has had on the country, but showed how it has facilitated the spread of other diseases such as multi drug-resistant tuberculosis and malaria, which "claims the life of an African child every 30 seconds."
Dr. Fred Gage, WCU vice president of information systems, delivered the lecture as a means to illustrate the extent to which selected diseases have already affected Sub-Saharan Africa as well as discuss how they will impact its future populations.
Gage began the lecture talking about the prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in Africa and then moved on to discuss other diseases plaguing the continent such as tuberculosis, malaria and obstetric fistula.
When it came to the human impact that the AIDS virus has had in Africa, Gage was not brief in illustrating its effect on women and children. He showed viewers how African women ages 16 to 24 are now between two to six times more likely to develop AIDS and that the disease has had a profound effect on their life expectancy as well as their ability to conceive. However, Gage said the issue of AIDS is still approached with much "stigma" in Africa as some studies show 90 percent of HIV afflicted women were infected by their husbands.
He also highlighted the fact that recently Jacob Zuma, the deputy president of South Africa was acquitted of raping an HIV positive woman, enraged AIDS activists by saying that he didn't use a condom but took a shower afterwards.
African children have also become victims of AIDS according to Gage as they account for one in every six related deaths worldwide. He also added that other children have lost either one or both of their parents to the disease.
In addition to the human impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, Gage also discussed how the virus has caused over crowding in hospitals, adversely affected the environment, radically changed the population structure as well as put pressure on governmental policy.
Gage not only spoke about the dramatic effect AIDS has had on the country, but showed how it has facilitated the spread of other diseases such as multi drug-resistant tuberculosis and malaria, which "claims the life of an African child every 30 seconds."
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