ODERN LEPROSY, IT�S CALLED. Plague. Catastrophe. History�s worst pandemic. Descriptors for the worldwide AIDS epidemic cannot adequately portray the scope, the suffering, the hopelessness, the helplessness of the afflicted and their families.

Statistics that reveal the numbers of deaths caused by the HIV/AIDS virus are mind-numbing�so far the global epidemic has claimed 16 millions lives, with 34 million people living with the disease.¹ That Africa will have 40 million orphans by 2010 is a staggering expectancy.² AIDS in Africa �is the leading cause of death, ruinous economically, and tragic in its consequences, orphaning millions of children.�³ The struggle of those inflicted has been likened to drowning�totally engulfed.

One hospital in Africa, an area of the world worst hit by the plague, is described as a �charnel house of human suffering.� Patients include 35-year-old Mary Mbwana with AIDS in her leg ulcers. It lies deep within the weeping herpes sores of a tobacco clerk�29-year-old William Chimwavi. It�s the plague that infects the body of 18-month-old John Phiri, whose three brothers have already died. John�s mother, Madrind, suffers from undetermined rashes and infections�she too will soon die as her first husband, Rajab Phiri. Just as the four sisters and one brother of Mary Mbwana did.⁴

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D E A T H AIDS Committee Report

It�s �a catastrophe without end,� reported Guardian Unlimited, �a searing epidemic that has destroyed families, orphaned millions of children, killed the elite, and crippled the already-impoverished economies of the world�s poorest countries.�⁵ One newspaper described how gender inequality perpetuates the pandemic��Men take their pleasure and women pay the price.�⁶ With up to 5,500 deaths daily, or nearly four per minute, in sub-Saharan Africa, coffin making is a booming business.⁷

Zambia�s health minister, Enoch Kavindele, has warned local clergy that if the spread of HIV/AIDS is not halted soon, they will be preaching to empty churches.⁸

The Seventh-day Adventist Church Responds
Recently 23 concerned professional individuals,* with Dr. Allan Handysides, director of the Health and Temperance Department of the General Conference (GC) as chair, met to consider the church�s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic during a two-day session at the church�s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Chilling Reality ��Life expectancy, with AIDS untreated, is from 28 days to nine years.�1 �The AIDS epidemic has infected 50 million people.2 �Ninety-five percent of those with HIV are in developing countries, with 50 percent between the ages of 15 and 24. �The cost for treatment is US$15,000 each year.3 In Malawi the annual health budget is about $10 per capita.4 �Twenty-two percent of mothers who are infected will transmit the disease to their newborn children. �Approximately one fourth to one third of all untreated pregnant women infected with HIV will pass the infection to their babies.�5 ��Eighty-five percent of those living with HIV became infected through heterosexual transmission.�6 �There were 20,000 AIDS deaths in the U.S. in 1999.7 ��More than half of all people who get infected with HIV are under the age of 25.�8 _________________________ 1 Dr. Allan Handysides, AIDS Study Committee, Jan. 11, 12, 2001, General Conference, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. 2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ aids/story/0,7369,405579,00.html. 3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ aids/story/0,7369,405639,00.html. 4 Ibid. 5 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, March 1999. 6 Gary Hopkins, AIDS Study Committee, Jan. 11, 12, 2001, General Conference, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. 7 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ aids/story/0,7369,405639,00.html. 8 United Nations AIDS report.

�The disease is at the roots of human behavior,� said Handysides. �The tragedy is that there is no vaccine. The treatments are costly and not curative, and as a population, we are going to be left with widows and fatherless. In North America there is complacency�it can�t happen here.�

As enormous and consequential as this crisis is, religious groups have been accused of discounting the widespread effects and the importance of involvement in prevention and treatment of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

The commission discussed Adventist attitudes and cultural biases that repel ministry to people suffering from AIDS:

• Some hold that AIDS is a just retribution for a lifestyle choice.
• Opportunities to minister are limited because of the potential for contracting the disease.
• Our highly conservative church culture is unwilling to separate the human issue of HIV/AIDS from its moral content.
• Prevention of AIDS and ministry to individuals who have contracted the disease run counter to the evangelistic campaign mentality.
• There is a lack of coordination among pastors, physicians, ADRA employees, teachers, and managers.
• We lack a youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health program.
• We have a false sense of security because of the assumed nature of the transmission of the disease (sexual intercourse outside of marriage and drug use).
• It is easier to construct a theology or program focusing on caring for those with AIDS than to engage in prevention, using techniques shown by research to have some effect among the general public.

Despite these limitations, the meeting together of professional and concerned individuals indicates a real willingness to be useful in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The commission organized three groups to discuss potential ministry avenues�church, education, and health agencies. Reports from the groups emphasized that AIDS issues be included in seminary courses and pastoral training sessions; that all Adventist health-care institutions evaluate their current protocols and practices in prevention, diagnoses, treatment, and caring; and that all pastors, teachers, and youth leaders be educated regarding AIDS prevention. (For a more detailed report see http//:www.health20-20.org.)

Famous Researcher Addresses Group
Dr. Ralph J. DiClemente, the most published researcher in the world regarding HIV/AIDS among adolescents, and chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, presented additional statistics and prevention strategies.

Adolescents� risk of STDs and HIV:

1. More than 50 percent of U.S. teens between the ages of 15 and 19 have had sex.
2. Eighty-three percent of teens in St. Maarten are sexually active by 15 years of age.
3. Approximately half of 15-year-olds in South Africa will eventually die of AIDS.
4. Fifty percent of new infections are among adolescents under 25 years of age.
5. Adolescent females are seven times more likely to be heterosexually infected with HIV than males.

Prevention strategies include: the teaching of peer resistance skills, use of modeling strategies to enhance skills, training in communication and providing STD/HIV risk-reduction knowledge, mobilizing and training adults in the adolescents� social sphere to enhance monitoring, parent-child communication, quality time commitment, a safe home environment, positive role models, and a sense of connectedness.

DiClemente, who has traveled extensively with Gary Hopkins, assistant director of the Health and Temperance Department of the General Conference, is convinced the Adventist Church should mobilize the Adventist health-care system and network as a model and an instrument for health promotion regarding the prevention of AIDS. He is familiar with and impressed by the approximately 300 Seventh-day Adventist resources in Africa�hospitals, educational institutions, publishing houses, and other facilities�and believes the Adventist Church should attempt to coordinate efforts with other non-Adventist church entities.

�Without prompt redirection of our resources, our commitment, and our intellectual energy, teens will face a continued threat of HIV infection and perhaps even greater challenges to avoid risk behaviors. . . . The future of succeeding generations depends on it,� concluded DiClemente. �If not us, who? If not now, when?�

The commission made the following recommendations:

1. An Adventist Institute of HIV/AIDS Affairs (AIH/AA) be established to coordinate, integrate, and initiate actions on behalf of the world church against HIV/AIDS and in support of its victims.
2. An executive director and supportive office be appointed to execute the actions called for by the AIDS study committee.
3. The director report to the GC offices of ADRA, Education, Family Ministries, Health Ministries, Ministerial, Youth Ministries, and AIDS study committee (AIDSCom).
4. The executive committee of the AIDSCom be constituted as the board of trustees for the Adventist Institute of HIV/AIDS Affairs.
5. A budget be provided.
6. The initial focus of the institute be on Africa, with projects, funding, personnel, and resources directed at church leadership, youth, and health-care institutions.
7. AIH/AA advise division health directors in matters pertaining to HIV/AIDS, and be vested with authority to impose protocols and standards upon health-care institutions.

These recommendations will be taken up by the appropriate councils of the world church.

Hard Questions
As the group concluded its two-day session, Handysides asked some hard, and as yet unanswered, questions: Where does the church go from here? Will we take up the cudgels in the fight against HIV/AIDS? Are we willing to put money, time, talents,� and personnel into a struggle that may not be measurable in baptisms? Can we translate our theology into meaningful action against this disaster? Our Achilles heel may lie in our strength: we have a major infrastructure, but is it so cumbersome as to have become rigid and inflexible? Or will we see our strength focused against one of history�s most horrendous epidemics?

As DiClemente asked: �If not us, who? If not now, when?�

*Presenters: Dr. Ronald Mataya, ADRA/Malawi; Dr. Elie Honore, director, Health and Temperance Department, Inter-American Division; Dr. Percy Harrold, director, Health and Temperance Department, South Pacific Division; Dr. Lester Wright, New York State corrections officer; Dr. Gary Hopkins, assistant director, GC Health Department; Dr. Richard Hart, then dean, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University. (For listing of others present, see http://www.health20-20.org.)

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¹ http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,405579,00.html.
² Ecumenical Courier, December 2000, vol. 6, No. 4.
³ http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,405639,00.html.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/0,7368,405525,00.html.
⁷ http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,7369,405579,00.html.
⁸ Ecumenical News International, 01-0010, Geneva, Switzerland.

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Myrna Tetz is managing editor of the Adventist Review.