Portland State students and staff packed the Multicultural Center yesterday afternoon in the Smith Memorial Student Union in observation of the 20th annual World AIDS Day with poetry, speakers and a panel discussion.
The event, titled “AIDS Beyond Our Africa: We Are Not Silent,” was sponsored by the Association of African Students (AAS).
Vice President of the AAS, Pierre Ngung, spoke against the negative stereotypes of students on campus, such as the lack of diversity within the association and rumored disorganization.
“It is vital for us Africans, and those who are simply interested in the African culture, to know basics about the continent,” he said. “I was surprised when I came here how little people knew.”
Placque Butterfly, a poet who spoke at the event, kept the audience wrapped in silence as she read.
“We have a lot of work to do. As long as our babies are dying in the street, as long as we have mouths to feed. We have a lot of work to do,” she recited before receiving a long applause.
Ngung said AIDS continues to be a paramount issue in Africa.
“We cannot turn our back on AIDS,” he said. “It is embarrassing, heart wrenching–this is such an issue back home. It would be unethical for us to ignore this issue and not educate the community. We must respond to this pandemic.”
Lauran Van Vuurne, from Medical Teams International, says that her first introduction to AIDS was when her brother was diagnosed with the virus in 1987. Two years later, her brother died.
“We didn’t really talk about it,” she said. “He had cancer, so we usually just said that he had died of that.”In 1995, Van Vuurne’s other brother was diagnosed with melanoma and also died a few years after his diagnosis.
“We were much more open about what was happening, and we also got a lot of sympathy,” she said. “With my other brother there was so much silence. To me that is unfair. It is not a sin to be sick. It was a very painful death.”
Van Vuurne, who calls both America and Africa home, fell in love with Swaziland when she first visited it. Since then, it has been her mission to educate people about Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV and AIDS, she said.
According to 2007 statistics that were given at the event, 33 million people are living with HIV globally, and the region of Africa south of the Sahara Desert has the highest rates, with approximately 22 million people that have the virus.
“A lot of these countries don’t have the infrastructure for treatment or care. Hospitals are overwhelmed–but there is more than that,” Van Vuurne said. “It bothers me when people ask, ‘What is wrong with Africa, what are they, promiscuous?’ That judgmental attitude is unfair-there are so many reasons why it is more prevalent there.”
Van Vuurne listed differences in circumcision practices, or lack there of, as the most recent development in the prevention of the virus, citing a recent study that showed circumcised men as being much less likely to contract HIV through intercourse.
Ways of transferring the virus are well known–it can be contracted through sexual intercourse, blood contact and other ways–but there are many misconceptions about the spread of the disease, she said.
“I’ve had people come up to me worried about being scratched by an infected person. It’s much, much harder than that to get it. The virus doesn’t even survive very long outside of the body,” Van Vuurne said.
The HIV retrovirus takes over the DNA of healthy cells and does not leave, similar to herpes or chicken pox. However, the cells that HIV chooses happen to be the ones that protect people’s health. After finding healthy cells, it destroys them, weakening resistance to all other illnesses and making otherwise curable ailments deadly.
During the event, volunteers came up to illustrate the network of sexual partners that can be present even when you think you only have one partner.
“How do you know about the extras in each other’s life?” Van Vuurne said. “Are you still so keen to get together with someone when it’s with all of them?” she asked, pointing to the large group of people in front of the room that signified a couple’s current, recent and ex-partners.
With the stigma surrounding the HIV virus itself, the unwillingness to get tested and share information creates what she calls the “perfect storm,” explaining how, in her mind, AIDS has become such a problem.
In addition to Butterfly and Van Vuurne’s discussion, the event also featured an additional speaker, Charlene McGee, as well as a Q-and-A session.
“If just one of these people were positive, it would follow through the entire group of people. That is all it takes,” Van Vuurne said.