AIDS Impact

The Gabarone Iinternational Confernce Center at 

The Grand Palm Hotel (where conference was held)

Quite a nice facility

There were even peacocks on the grounds of the hotel!

This past Thursday and Friday I was lucky enough to be able to attend the AIDS Impact Conference in Gaborone.  It was an international 4 day conference where doctors, psychologists, researchers, economists, etc presented their research on different aspects of HIV and AIDS.  Much of the conference focused on the social and economic impact of AIDS.  It was quite interesting. Though some was disturbing.  For example, there was a study done in Botswana to see which groups were more likely to have multiple concurrent sexual partners.  (Public education about reducing the number of sexual partners and "breaking the chain of HIV" is one of the major areas being targeted as a prevention strategy.)  The study found that both women and men who were more educated and richer were more likely to have multiple concurrent sexual partners (defined as more 2 different people in the last month) when compared to their less educated poorer counterparts.  This is a bit disheartening because one would think that those who are more educated about the risks might be more likely to avoid risky behaviors.

There was also a big discussion of the role of circumcision in prevention of HIV.  Three different studies done in Africa have shown that circumcised males are less likely  to contract HIV when compared to their uncircumcised counterparts.  So there is now a big campaign in Botswana to circumcise men.   The problem is that circumcision is not as effective as condoms and does not provide any reduction in risk of transmission to women.  Some men after getting circumcised have a false sense of security and believe that they have a "natural condom."  However, if circumcision provides some protection maybe it is better than nothing since condom usage is only around 60% (despite widespread campaigns - more on that in a later post).   I find it to be a very interesting debate and can see both sides of the argument.

I attended a motivational interviewing workshop which will be quite handy (I hope) in trying to get through to teenagers.  There was also much discussion on the economic aspects of the epidemic and how by focusing only on HIV we have neglected so many other things.  On presenter told the story of people in Tanzania who after testing negative for HIV were upset.  When asked why, they responded that they had no food and wished they were positive because HIV positive people were eligible for food baskets!  What have we done?  Unfortunately there was not as much about where to go from here as I would have liked, but on the whole a very enlightening two days.  And there is hope from Thailand, with the first vaccine to show any benefit.  Still a long way to go but progress!

Here are some random pictures of the last week.

  Me and Julia in garden at the Serowe Hotel

Hanging out with some new Serowe friends

Me, Lincoln (Peace Corps volunteer), Shamu (medical officer from Zimbabwe), Joanna and Danny (doctors from Cuba), Louisa (doctor from Sierra Leone who has had a private practice in Serowe for many years) and Daniel (science teacher from Zimbabwe who studied in Cuba and has been teaching in Botswana for many years).  Quite a diverse group!

This is a picture of a girl I met in the center of Serowe who came up to me and said that she wanted to be my friend.  She said that she wanted to live in my house, I told her that was not going to happen.  Then she begged me to take her picture and send it to my friends in the States. So here it is.  (She is wearing an interesting shirt - not quite sure of the full meaning)

L'Shana Tova (Happy New Year) to all Jews reading this (and anyone else who wants to celebrate the Jewish New Year).  I hope that this year brings much happiness, hope, wisdom, and change to all the corners of the earth!