Health

African AIDS Epidemic Solution needs Thinkers

by jaurez | November 26, 2008 at 02:52 pm

267 views | 25 Recommendations | 4 comments

A successful model which diminuishes AIDS to the point where it is no longer an epidemic of growing proportions in Africa and refers to a total cost of $17 billion in 10 years has been put forth by this week in the Lancet journal.

A board of thinkers has not yet assembled officially to study the feasibility of this model without violating human rights such as the right to not take medication.

Just 2.5 % of US bailout could end AIDS Epidemic in Africa

In Indonesia the solution of implanting a chip in HIV positive persons who are deemed to be purposefully infecting others would not curb the epidemic as it only monitors the consequence of contagion of 1%-2% of the HIV positive people.

The proposed bill, now with the provincial parliament, has encountered fierce resistance from local health workers, government officials and church leaders, who say the practice would constitute a human rights violation and do little to address Papua's high infection rate. "Two wrongs do not make a right, and the plan to implant HIV people with microchips is definitely wrong," says Elisabeth Pisani, an epidemiologist and former AIDS researcher in Indonesia. "This sort of nonsense is hardly worth commenting on from a public health point of view, but I think it might give pause for thought to those who are pushing rapid decentralization and local democracy as a development model [in Indonesia]."

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Amy Judd

at 15:18 on November 26th, 2008

I'm so sorry that your first story did not generate as many views and recommendations that you hoped for. I can assure you that it is not because we don't care.

Sometimes stories get posted at lower traffic times, or at the same time as some other stories, and if they are mostly a highlight it becomes much harder for search engines to find them and drive traffic to the piece. All of these can add up to fewer views on a story.

I think this is a very interesting topic and thank you for posting on it. I hope further news on the matter gets much more attention.

Terri Potratz

at 15:23 on November 26th, 2008

juarez,

We created a feature channel for AIDS awareness leading up to World AIDS Day, so hopefully these important stories will find more eyes on them.

Amy is absolutely correct in that posting time and highlight vs. original text are two factors that come into play. Also, it's important to consider that if there are big breaking news stories happening at the time of your posting, traffic will likely navigate towards those areas.

I hope you'll continue to supply content to the AIDS channel and help raise awareness for World AIDS Day on December 1. Please message me privately if you have any questions or would like some additional tips.

jaurez

at 00:28 on November 27th, 2008

Thanks Amy, Terri - I just never had an article that got only 13 views in 23 hours before so I was a bit shocked - strange how posting time affects things - I was compelled to do my experiment about NowPublic and its self-reflexive capabilities... so i changed the headline as suggested ...