(RED) Spells H.O.P.E (Viewpoint Essay‪)‬

In analyzing the Africanness or lack thereof of (RED) one would need to initially address the main issue at hand lest we forget--that of the AIDS pandemic one of the most devastating plagues to ever befall mankind in Africa and beyond. The facts are that today of the over thirty-three million people globally living with HIV/AIDS, two out of three of these are Africans living in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the fifteen million children orphaned by this pandemic to date--twelve million of them are children of Africa. In total over fifty million Africans have been infected with HIV/AIDS since reporting began and of these over twenty-two million have died. These are the facts (UNAIDS, 2007). Of concern to this writer therefore is not how Africa/Africans and (RED) are mutually exclusive as labels but of concern are the lives at stake on my beloved continent. I am a child of Africa who has seen the devastation of AIDS from coast to coast, I have seen mothers and grandmothers helpless as they watched their loved ones die for lack of a cure, I have worked on and participated in research, campaigns, and prevention efforts and have been in remote villages as four people to a bed have consecutively breathed their last for want of a nurse or doctor to provide care. I am also a physician who swore the Hippocratic Oath to keep the good of patients as highest priority--procurement of essential treatment modalities and ensuring accessibility of treatment to prevent needless death thus becomes a prioritized issue.