Confessions of a Misguided Trio

A Leader Shows The Way...

With Thursday being World AIDS Day it’s not surprising to see a lot of information coming out in the media about all sorts of programs in all sorts of countries. It was with great interest I read in this mornings Australian about the Kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa.

The ministers and health officials of the Kingdom intend to announce this week ‘A $US12 million program… to test the 1.9 million people living in the mountainous enclave within South Africa for the human immunodeficiency virus.’

This is encouraging news; perhaps even more admirable is that His Royal Highness ‘King Letsie III is likely to become the first monarch to take the test publicly, at a clinic in the capital Maseru, on Thursday.’ The action of the Monarch is no doubt aimed towards reducing the stigma attached to testing. Lesatho rates of infection are similar to Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia often exceeding 30%.

Since 2000 a citizen of Lesatho’s life expectancy has dropped from 52 to merely 34.

The World Health Organisation hopes that by the end of 2007 every member of the population over the age of 12 will know their HIV status.

The theme for 2005’s World AIDS Day is Let’s Talk About It, so let’s make sure we do.

posted by Mark @ 7:58 PM