Any process of debate and response to HIV to be productive, reliable and successful can not happen without a global focus on the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of women and girls.
Half of people infected by the HIV/AIDS in the world are women, a direct result of the lack of respect for their basic human rights, mainly their sexual and reproductive rights. In fact, the growth of the epidemic among women and girls is facilitated by the explosive combination of poverty, migration, violence, lack of information and unsafe sexual practices in a context of fundamentalism, expansion of conservative morals, and patriarchy (machismo.)
The affect and the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic last forever for the people infected by the virus, with a new health and pharmacological regimen and a call for an ever watchful behavior towards the person's immune system. Healthy eating and regular exercising is but the basic rule for long lasting quality of life. This of course is the developed ideal if we think of each and every different person, singularly. Nevertheless if the view scope is broader, a set of complex but simple interactions involving historical inequalities, that have supported the expansion of poverty worldwide, offer a much more detailed situation populated by scarcity. Most people infected and affected by HIV lacks most of what they need to have a balanced healthy life, including the basic necessity of regular nourishment. Furthermore, the demand for antiretroviral medicines has grown exponentially.
The HIV virus and the AIDS epidemic defies most of preconceived notions about micro to macro relations. Almost thirty years after its identification, the survival and growth of HIV among the human population, and the particular rapid growth among women as of the past decade, shows that the virus resiliency is related to deeply social, economic, and fundamentally cultural interaction, with gender inequity and poverty as the engine, including a web of taboos and prejudice. The core of the epidemiological problem is social, not only biological, with a constant demand for political solutions.
Therefore the directions to try and curb the development of the pandemic worldwide is to support local initiatives for prevention, support and care whilst monitoring the effectiveness of public policies and their implementation, making sure budget allocation is translated into actions, including the proper procurement and supply of antiretroviral treatment to all who need it. Also making sure the policies and plans follow the Universal Access commitments undersigned by governments in the United Nations resolutions, including UNGASS-AIDS and the MDGs.
Once again, the micro-macro relation is amplified by the labor spent on networking and advocacy in the national and global levels. The organizations and activists effort is politically preventive based on the understanding that the HIV issue will not go away, and if the proper care is not given to it, it might just start growing rapidly again. This would be a menace. From the biological infection to the boards of Ministries, corporations, and NGOs, HIV/AIDS is an exceptional challenge that demands exceptional attention.
