AIDS, Africa and George W. Bush

December 1^st was World AIDS Day.  AIDS is a rotten disease—not that there are any good ones.    Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the last stage of HIV infection.  The human immunodeficiency virus gradually destroys the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight infections.  It is a wasting disease.  It works slowly, allowing its victim to unknowingly spread its ugly self from person to person before anyone realizes that a killer has been loosed on the unsuspecting. 

            There are equally vicious diseases that can become pandemic, but most of them are so quick to kill that they literally outrun their supply lines, killing off their hosts so efficiently that the victims can not spread the disease before dying.  Ebola, the almost mythic hemorrhagic fever of the 70’s, was like this.  It would sweep down on an African village and kill off the entire population before people, walking on foot, could carry the disease to another village many kilometers down the road.  Not HIV; this disease knows how to survive for generations.  If there ever was a virus sent from Hell, this must be it.

            Of course, Hell had nothing to do with HIV or Ebola.  Why should Hell waste time on work that humans can do by themselves?  Both types of disease emerged first in upper story primates in Africa and then evolved into a virus at home in the human population.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone.  We humans share 96% of our DNA with primates.  Any germ that can live in a lower primate can adjust to us. It simply needs exposure and time.  When large numbers of primates have fallen dead from viruses, the bodies end up being handled (skinned, eaten, curiously examined…) by the African’s who find them.  Declines in primates always precede outbreaks of disease.  Thanks to modern mobility, diseases that used to be sequestered by geography are now available to the whole planet.  But in Africa, it is particularly bad.

            In 2003, fewer than 50,000 HIV-infected people on the African continent were receiving the antire­troviral drugs that keep HIV in check and halt the progression toward full-blown AIDS.  In that year, the administration of George W. Bush inaugurated a program (PEPFAR) to get the necessary treatment to the entire African community.  By the time Bush left office the number of people being effectively treated had increased to 2 million.  To date the people of the United States have spent $46 billion on fighting AIDS in a land most of us will never see.  Why?  Because President George W. Bush thought it was the right thing to do.

The Obama administration is proposing to cut funding to this program by 12%.  They point out that they have, however, loosened the immigration restrictions on people with HIV.  This is all so typical of an administration that goes for the photo op over substance every time.  

            An honest opinion of President George W. Bush comes from Washington Post Opinion Writer, Eugene Robinson.  This man is no friend of Bush’s, but on July 26, 2012 he finished his column about Bush, Africa and AIDS with this comment:

…But if Africa is gaining ground against AIDS, history will note that it was Bush, more than any other individual, who turned the tide. The man who called himself the Decider will be held accountable for a host of calamitous decisions. But for opening his heart to Africa, he deserves nothing but gratitude and praise.  

History will love a President who keeps the faith.