The devastation caused by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is the concern of the whole world, a panel discussion indicated Tuesday night.
At the roundtable discussion, led by Penn Society for International Development executive board members Michelle Holshue and Mara Pillinger, a small but enthusiastic group of Penn students discussed the impact HIV/AIDS has on developing nations.
The panelists said HIV/AIDS strikes the most productive members of society and removes them from the workforce and from their families. This burdens younger and older generations, forcing them to work and look after very young children.
In schools, Pillinger said, teachers are dying and children are forced to leave school to take care of ailing parents. The already fragile health care systems of developing nations are being overwhelmed, she added.
"It is estimated that 70 percent of hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients," Pillinger said.
Pillinger said that some African nations are unsure of how many people are infected and have no interest in collecting data on the disease, which is estimated to have infected over 30 million people in Africa alone.
According to Holshue, the epidemic has effects that stretch beyond the developing world.
"AIDS doesn't discriminate," Holshue said. "If you aren't a humanitarian, you should look at the economic and international-security issues HIV/AIDS causes. Poor countries are usually the most unstable" and least economically viable.
Holshue added that people in the global community do care about HIV/AIDS, citing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's assistance for community-based grassroots education and development projects as an example.
Alongside international efforts, programs in Uganda and Botswana that work to increase AIDS awareness are producing successful results, Pillinger said.
The reaction from the Penn students at the discussion was mainly positive.
College junior Kiran Bhatraju said the discussion was "great and eye opening" and that he "learned issues about AIDS that you don't learn from teachers or peers."
College sophomore Catherine Yourougou agreed.
"Although I knew most of this before, the discussion brought things to my attention I hadn't considered." Yourougou said.
