Reply #52: the problem with medicine

[pitohui]

i have only visited kenya so can only speak to the situation there, the prob. w. getting medicine to the people in rural areas is absolutely enormous, the roads are bad beyond belief, words can't describe, a rich person or family may be able to travel by private airplane to get around, a poor person may have no option but travel by foot, in places the so-called roads are indistinguishable to the eye from a rocky dried-up river bed

getting REGULAR supplies of medicine to maintain people w. hiv/aids is v. v. difficult and in some areas it it just not going to happen

this is why kenyan researchers are so much in the forefront of searching for a one-time preventative or treatment -- condoms and medicines must travel, and regularly -- but a vaccination only has to happen once, a circumcision procedure (assuming it would help) only has to be done once -- the white western world has pretty much abandoned the search for a vaccine, saying it is too difficult and possibly unnecessary, but i know kenyan doctors dispute this, they say a vaccine MUST be found, because a one-time vax could make all the difference

i don't think anyone believes circumcision is a be-all or end-all but any "one step" technique that might help could make a real difference

it is just impossible to believe until you have seen it -- there are literally people so poor that they have no clothesline and they put out their laundry to dry on the ground

that is what we are up against in the real world

money, medicine, and education are WONDERFUL things, problem is, they are LONG TERM things -- and people are dying right now today, any little thing that might help NOW should not be despised

ok, rant over, sorry