In Africa, hope emergesSenegal's aggressive AIDS strategy saves thousands from infection
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, Photos by Dominic Chavez, Globe Staff, 8/10/2003
DAKAR, Senegal -- This report continues a series, begun on Jan. 26, on world health challenges and solutions that are within reach. Lives Lost special section
The two women slept in their nightshirts on a thin mattress, their tired bodies curled around each other.
One held a baby doll whose startling blue eyes stared into the darkness. Neither woman stirred, not after a night of carousing, dancing, and enduring the rough grasps of men. This was a moment of precious peace.
Day broke, and amid barking dogs and crying babies in their concrete apartment block, the two women, both prostitutes, lingered on their bed. They were irritable. To eat, they needed to work, to ''go out into the night,'' as they put it.
''This is a violent life,'' Anthonia Jacob, 28, said in her husky voice, still clutching her doll. ''One thing, though - I'm very careful. I make sure they always use condoms. That's why I'm healthy.''
On a continent where a breathtakingly high percentage of prostitutes carry and spread the AIDS virus, Jacob and her roommate, Kate Eno, are HIV-free.
Senegal deserves some credit.
This impoverished nation of 10 million people on Africa's west coast has shown how AIDS can be held at bay in places where the disease is a persistent, voracious killer. In 12 other African countries, more than 10 percent of people ages 15 to 49 are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In Senegal, the infection rate has never risen above 2 percent; its prevention efforts have saved tens of thousands of lives.
