Increased Antiretroviral Access, Government Efforts, Funding Providing Hope in Southern Africa's HIV/AIDS Epidemic, Opinion Piece Says

The combination of new antiretroviral treatment programs in Southern Africa, increased efforts by some African governments to fight HIV/AIDS, and more funding from the United States and other countries to pay for treatment have created an "archipelago of hope" amid "the ocean of despair" in the region, New York Times columnist David Brooks writes in a Times opinion piece. The three factors have given health care workers in Southern Africa "the means to offer life" after years of "watching people die," which has boosted their morale and helped them to increase HIV testing, Brooks says. Although the region has a "long way to go" in fighting the epidemic, efforts should be "redoubl[ed] ... out of a sense of opportunity," Brooks writes, concluding, "We could be on the verge of a recovery boom" (Brooks, New York Times, 6/9).

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