Hello,
My name is Ahmad Saleh and I just turned 23 last October. That wasn’t as exciting as me writing my first blog ever right now. Thinking back on it, it actually took me 3 days to come up with that previous sentence (I really should have gone for something more inspiring I guess). Anyway, I’m from Lebanon which is somewhere around the lower top 200 countries in respect to size. As for the Lebanese society, it is highly diverse in terms of religious, political and cultural backgrounds. But it remains a moderately conservative one nonetheless.
I am currently pursuing my masters’ degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and bio-statics. I volunteer at several organizations such as the Red Cross (a social and EM service provider NGO) and Helem (an LGBT advocacy NGO). I have been a so-called activist since 2004.
What drew me to show interest in issues of HIV/AIDS would mainly be the extent of burden that is caused by the disease. Out of all the communicable diseases incidents that are projected to decrease over the next 20 years, HIV/AIDS mortality is projected to actually double and claim 117 million lives over a 25 years period. This is a serious public health threat and direct drawback on all the accomplishments that we as a human race have accomplished. What is even more absurd is how that accessibility can alter this situation. Complying to international agreement and current agendas on universal access which work to increase worldwide ART coverage can lead to a 3% decrease in incident cases and lower overall mortality to 89 million deaths, “a saving of 28 million lives” (Mathers et al., 2006).
In that sense I find myself more interested in the aspects of consistent treatment from the viewpoint of health as a basic right to all. Another interest I have in the context of the HIV/AIDs is the right in knowledge and awareness on the possible risks and methods of protection and preventions as bodily rights.
My criticism on the current efforts that are being carried out in Lebanon is that it’s mostly inconsistent and highly fragmented. There is no uniform national agenda that the different parties (whether being governmental, grass-root, or international) can abide to. Moreover, all the efforts that are carried out are out encoded into the literature through ongoing research and publications. This is the change that I want to see in my country. I want to see field work, and perceptions being translated into words and numbers and shared among all the different parties so that all those valuable lessons that are learned are translated into more efficient and progressive efforts to truly estimate the nature of the epidemic in Lebanon and possibly among the nearby region.
Well, this is it from me for now. I hope this blogging gets easier as I get more familiar with it (I guess it really doesn’t help having such a short concentration span).
Cheers
....Me....last december
