HIV/AIDS in Swaziland

A colleague of mine is going back to school to take some more classes to get into med school (lucky them).

They had asked me to proofread a paper they had written on the HIV/AIDS prevalence in Swaziland and the ineffective interventions that have been implemented.

There is data on the World Health Organization Website about Swaziland's HIV treatment needs. Kind of scary if you think about it since the rate of infection in the general population is over 25%. Can you imagine, for every 4 people you come across, 1 has HIV?

It's no secret that there's a stigma attached to HIV infection. This stigma is so pervasive and powerful that it is more dangerous than HIV itself. It keeps people from ever seeking treatment, it keeps people from ever getting tested, and it keeps people from ever protecting themselves.

It sort of makes you appreciate the virus itself. It is the perfect human killing machine.

But you have to wonder if HIV is really that dangerous. It's looking at countries like Swaziland that sort of makes you wonder if the people around you are more dangerous than HIV since people have the ability to influence perception (for better or worse). It's not the virus that changes how you think, it's the people around you. A disease is a disease, they follow the same pathological cycle... But people do not.