By Kuek Aleu Garang
HIV/AIDS is increasing at an alarming rate in South Sudan. Last year, the Minister of Health, Yolanda Awel Deng, announced that the number of people with AIDS had increased based on the number tested. Adding that 17000 people tested positive last year, 8000 people died of AIDS, and an estimated 173000 people living with AIDS. In which the Western Equatoria state and Lake State with high prevalence, according to the Minister of Health.
HIV/AIDS in South Sudan is a silent killer across the country. The HIV/AIDS death isn't known, no one would precisely assert the death number, but the minister's revelation of the above-estimated data is an ice-dropping on the people of South Sudan. The number of deaths and ones living with HIV could be far higher than what the minister revealed.
The imbalance/disorder focus of the government on issues makes serious problems affecting citizens go unaddressed. The South Sudan government might think that any threat to the leadership of South Sudan is only a national security issue. As much as political stability is utmost, the country's health status is extraordinarily vital to the well-being of people. And any disease or pandemic that threatens people's health should be treated or declared national insecurity.
The COVID-19 pandemic shook up the world, and it has altered how the world interacts. The world responded to how to mitigate it and protect people from being killed by the pandemic; the scientists from most advanced countries rushed to make vaccines in the shortest time possible to rescue their citizens first and the world. It was a national insecurity in the globalized world, including South Sudan.
So HIV/AIDS is not different and should not be downplayed in South Sudan. A country is vulnerable on many fronts and should keep us on our toes. HIV/AIDS needs all citizens, not only the government, to play a significant role in mitigating the HIV/AIDS prevalence; nevertheless, the government should lead the frontline and declare it one of the country's national insecurity that needs immediate all-out war against.
The South Sudanese social structure, economic hardship, and lack of government response to impede HIV would significantly hurdle the curbing of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country. Should the government implement mandatory testing now, the population with HIV positive would be heart-wrenching. Without awareness and preventive measures, HIV/AIDS would drastically increase.
Our social structure is a significant factor in increasing HIV/AIDS and a stumbling block to curbing it. Before the modern societal structure, our culture had restrictive principles and norms that never condoned sexual activities among young people or openly discussed sex-related topics. These cultural norms and principles were the epitome of public health. Such a principle was good then when South Sudan communities used to live separately. But with the current modern structure where many communities join urban areas with little knowledge about the consequences of urban areas can negatively impede curbing HIV/AIDS prevalence. Even when testing facilities are available, people would instead turn blind eyes to avoid being tested. The fear of openly having AIDS also meets cultural stigma from a society where the infected member may be overlooked or disowned.
With the readjustment of our communities to modern South Sudan, our people ought to know that the below problems continue to spread HIV/AIDS prevalence and impede the counter mitigation.
1: POLYGAMY: As a norm and cultural practice in many communities in South Sudan, polygamy is culturally acceptable, but it can negatively affect the spreading of HIV/AIDS. However, polygamy in a globalizing world where people from all walks of life mix in urban cities, involving in nonmarital partnerships, is no longer suitable in modern South Sudan. When a partner, be it a husband or one of the wives, gets infected outside of marriage, all the other partners in the union would also be infected - one person can destroy that family with HIV. The probability of transmitting HIV could be relatively high in a polygamist marriage.
2: LACK OF HIV/AIDS AWARENESS: The lack of awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS in South Sudanese society, where unprotected sex seems obvious, is deeply alarming. The behavioral change, especially among young people and the entire community, would require strong awareness through various communication media—South Sudanese communities aren't taking this fight against the HIV epidemic. Our people need to shoulder the HIV/AIDS crisis as a national crisis and deploy strategies to mitigate the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. Our people in towns always hold meetings and cultural events but never talk about the country's health crisis. That's when you realize that society isn't alarmed about their health crisis.
Our communities should use events and other gatherings as a platform for HIV awareness. This makes it relatively crucial for the government to seriously take the HIV/AIDs crisis as a health crisis that requires the government and the people of South Sudan to confront it on various fronts.
3: ECONOMIC HARDSHIP: The toll of the social-economic crisis upon young people allows them to engage in the sex business to survive economic hardship. The war of 2013 and the economic collapse in South Sudan created Many young girls in urban areas, especially in Juba, who have been involved in this kind of business where those with money take advantage of the situation and who knows who is HIV positive.
4: FOREIGN SEX WORKERS: Many foreign sex workers influx into the country from neighboring countries is another problem that needs to be tackled by the government. The majority of this group is infected with HIV or other reproductive diseases. Their health is unknown, and the fact that our society is so rigid in using protective sex allows them to be vulnerable to being easily infected.
© May 2023
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