More than a sixth of Mozambique’s 9,000 teachers die each year of HIV/AIDS, Reuters/the Montreal Gazette reports (canada.com, 3/26).
According to the article, the country’s education and culture minister Aires Aly said HIV/AIDS has become a national emergency that is affecting the southern African nation’s economic development.
“This is a crucial issue for us and we are trying to train more teachers for them to be able to deal with [HIV] in the communities, Aly said in the article. “Teachers play a major role in the economic development of this country.”
The article reports that more than 16 percent of the country’s 20 million residents between the ages of 14 and 49 are HIV positive.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
