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Ron Stepneski's Viewpoint
EPIDEMIC: Africa in AIDS Hell
U.N.: some 30 million have HIV/AIDS, need drugs, care, education
Photo: MSNBC
NEW YORK , Dec. 3, 2002 -- The world must do more to fight the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS virus in Africa and treat the nearly 30 million Africans who have contracted the disease – a larger HIV/AIDS population by far than anywhere else on earth.

More than 70 percent of the world’s 42 million HIV/AIDS victims live in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, according to a new United Nations report.

And they are getting a fraction of the drugs they need to slow the virus and treat opportunistic infections.

The HIV virus attacks the body's immune system, leading to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS, a condition in which the body loses its ability to fight off disease.

About 2.4 million Africans south of the desert died in 2002 and more – tragically many more – are likely to follow.

There were 3.5 million new infections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2002, the report states. In at least four countries -- Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe -- more than 30 percent of all adults carry the infection, both men and women.  

The December 2002 report --  by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization -- contends the high price of the virus-fighting drugs is a major impediment to arresting the plague.

The United Nations and African governments have taken important steps in establishing councils, commissions and strategies to destroy this epidemic, according to the report.

However, they need more help from the global pharmaceutical community  to provide these drugs free or at the cost of manufacturing in areas that cannot otherwise afford them.

It is also critical for charitable and religious organizations, often in the forefront of battles to eradicate poverty and disease, to provide more medical care and education about the disease which is commonly spread through sexual relations with an infected person.

Wealthier countries such as the United States must also help with additional funds, food and equipment. A great nation can do no less.

Many of the African victims are mere children. About 10 million of the African HIV/AIDS victims are between the ages of 15 and 24, the UN reported. Three million are under the age of 15.  

None of us can do enough when so many people are dying.
Who will hear their cries?
Who will answer their prayers?
It's up to each of us.
We are God's hands and hearts.
We cannot stand by and watch them die.
We cannot let them die.
We will not let them die.
Ron Stepneski's
  Viewpoint
Hussein must go if he's making illegal weapons
U.S. should find proof of nuclear, chemical or biological weapon manufacturing before strike
NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2002 -- The United States should launch an attack to remove Saddam Hussein from power if it is convinced the Iraqi president is manufacturing weapons of mass destruction.
The key to taking such an action is proof that nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are being developed in Iraq. Not simple suspicion or nonspecific intelligence reports from the U.S. and Great Britain that claim Iraq has ability to deliver such weapons but persuasive physical evidence that can be shown to the American people.
When President Kennedy ordered a 1962 naval blockade of Cuba – preventing Russian ships from delivering possible missile equipment to its Cold War ally – he had persuasive evidence, satellite photos of apparent Cuban missile bases under construction that could have aimed nuclear missiles at the U.S.
We need that type of evidence before we move in and take out Saddam Hussein.
Judging by his past performance, the Iraqi president merits harsh measures:
1) The U.S. and its allies launched the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to repell his invasion of neighboring Kuwait.
2) Hussein agreed to destroy weapons of mass destruction as a condition of ending that war and to allow international weapons inspections to prove he had done so.
3) He did not allow inspectors unfettered access to possible weapons sites then and there is little reason to believe he would now, despite his recent announcement that he would.
The United Nations should respond to Hussein’s offer and send a team of inspectors to determine the truth of the U.S. claims or Iraq’s denials of weapon making.
The results of that inspection or other independently obtained evidence of weapon making should determine whether we attack.
Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have time on its side.
Terrorists have declared a holy war and the U.S. has evidence, according to U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, that Iraq has provided some of them with chemical weapon training.
In an era of suicide bombers, it would be relatively easy for an Al Qaeda member to enter the U.S. hiding a tiny vile of bacteria, a biochemical weapon. It wouldn’t even set off metal detectors.
Most civilized nations don’t use chemical or biological weapons because they can backfire big time if the wind blows the wrong way, killing all sides in a war.
But Hussein is not a brilliant man; he is a vicious one.
And just as we cage a vicious dog before it bites, the U.S. should deal with Saddam Hussein before he deals with us.
Reader Al Marchese reacts:
Dec. 4, 2002: Your editorial about AIDS reaching epidemic proportions in Africa and what should be done about it was superbly written. Unfortunately, nothing ever will be done about it no matter the money spent, until humankind returns to the "Laws of Almighty God," most especially where it pertains to proper and defiled sex.
 In the 3rd book of the Bible called Leviticus, God laid out the proper conduct for the sanctity of sex. In Chapter 18, verses 22 & 23, the following is written as to some of the words He spoke to Moses. "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman;such thing is an ABOMINATION. You shall not have carnal relations with an animal, defiling yourself with it, nor shall a woman set herself in front of an animal to mate with it; such things are ABHORRENT!"
 The problem with the world is a word many people ridicule and despise. It's called "SIN" and until all of us, (Not only the AIDS infected) turn back to the Laws of God, which incidentally are the "Laws of Nature," all human efforts and unlimited money to eradicate the disease stands as much chance as a snowball in Hell.
 It's time it was told this "Unpolitically Correct Way!" To say it any other way is futile.

 

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