By Alena M. Scarver
The City of Chicago and a Namibian delegation gathered to discuss the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the African American community in room 2002 in the city of Chicago offices at the DePaul Center on June 25. The committee sat at the table to discuss the importance of HIV testing through education in Chicago.
Testing is based on the data gathered and where the needs of testing are and they go to that community. There are 10 mobile units set up in the area to test for HIV/AIDS and other diseases. People are more willing to test for HIV/AIDS because of the rapid testing.
To make sure that many people were tested, there were street teams that canvassed neighborhoods to inform them of what was going on in the area.
After the presentation, the forum was opened to the question and answer session where the discussion was geared toward the differences between HIV/AIDS in the United States and Namibia.
Health organizations in Namibia, a country of two million people works with pregnant women with AIDS. The percentage has now decreased from 22 percent to 19.9 percent. The Namibian government has stepped to implement programs to fight against HIV/AIDS.
One of the main differences between AIDS prevention in the Namibia and the United States involves school-based education. The Namibian public school has begun HIV/AIDS age-appropriate education in the school system, whereas the United States only teaches abstinence-only education. Because of that, there has been a decrease in HIV/AIDS in youth.
The Namibians do not target the same-gender-loving community; however condoms are distributed to the prison guards, but not the inmates because the main transmission of HIV/AIDS are heterosexual sex and mother to child ( breast feeding ) .
