I am writing in response to the Aug. 20 article "Students Cross Oceans to Broaden Horizons," in which I was not only greatly misquoted, but the writer added facts that I never mentioned.
Firstly, I never said that Kenya has an infection rate that is twice the world average. Nyanza province, which is the area in which I did most of my work, has an infection rate of 28 percent, which is twice that of the national rate of 13.5 percent.
Furthermore, I never said that I "saw entire villages in my homeland wiped out by the virus." If one goes around the villages in Nyanza, one can find homesteads that have closed because all the adults have passed away. A homestead is a farm made up of several homes, usually headed by brothers, and is much smaller than an entire village.
I had tried to make it clear to the writer, and obviously failed, that my main mission with the Burch Fellowship was to look past the misconceptions that are in the media about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Yes, people are dying. But what I saw was health professionals working tirelessly to save lives. HIV/AIDS education is being introduced into the national school curriculum so that when the 5-15 age group comes of age, they will make informed decisions and hopefully remain infection-free.
The Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative at the University of Nairobi is currently in the second phase of testing an AIDS vaccine. And scientists at Kenya Medical Research Institute are developing a diagnostic kit specifically catered to the A and D strains of HIV that are prevalent in Kenya.
Finally, I would advise The Daily Tar Heel to take greater care when interviewing individuals and consequently quoting them in articles. You should not misinform and reinforce stereotypes, neither should your ignorance be carried forward in articles.
Tanya Rogo
Senior
Biology
The length rule was waived.
