BURNING ISSUES OF THE MOMENT

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YOUTHS AND  HIV/AIDS SCOURGE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The much talk about control measures for HIV and AIDS advanced by medical science are bound to fail in controlling the spread of the dreaded disease in developing countries except the youths abide by the rules governing social interactions and relationships.

In traditional African societies for instance, interactions between young people generally and especially those of opposite sex were monitored by adults in order to checkmate attempts to deviate into sexual relationships.

While this practice did not completely eliminate deviant behaviours among the youths, it did reduce to the barest minimum incidences of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. It was not uncommon in those days for families to quarrel because a girl’s life was pestered by a boy who wanted her to befriend him. It was the girl that often reported such taunting to her parents.

The situation gradually changed due to the interplay of several factors chief among which included gradual globalization of the world via cross cultural interaction, western education, television, publication of soft sell pornographic magazines, inadequate religious and moral education, loss of family values, emergence and preponderance of contraceptive drugs and abortifacents, among others.

In time past, a promiscuous boy and /or girl did not go unnoticed for long because it won’t take long before he went down with a sexually transmitted disease or a girl was found with unwanted pregnancy or reported dead attempting to commit abortion.

Since the sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies were easily and cheaply taken care of, one would have thought that the advent of a dreaded disease like HIV/AIDS would reduce the level of sexual activity among the youths and the unmarried if not eliminate it. However, facts and figures of the number of youths who go down with infections and or die of the disease indicate the opposite.

The recommendation of condom for those who cannot abstain from sex or remain faithful to their partners has only worsened matters for the youths. Today, many young girls and boys still keep multiple sex partners, end up with pregnancies and contact HIV/AIDS. What do we say when see a girl carrying a pregnancy? Is it out of place to say that she may also be carrying HIV as well?

It is my candid opinion that rather than promoting the use of condom as a way of checking the spread of this disease and other sexually transmitted diseases in developing countries, social workers, health workers, teachers,  counselors and all those involved in youth development programmes should be empowered to promote and encourage the adoption of socially enduring approaches to checking the scourge.