The Health System in Gambelia has improved over the last two decades. However, there is still much more work that need to be done not only by the Gambelia National and Regional State Government, but also the local population needs to cooperate with the state government to effectively address some of the aspects that destroy Gambelia Live.
The prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the region which some research put as 6 percent of the population to be living with the virus is one aspect. But there is also an overwhelming use of alcohol by the yo1uth and it goes far beyond this category. It is widely understandable that young kids and women resort to the use of alcohol which does not predict a healthy outlook for the future of Gambelia. With this situation, there is no tribe among the indigenous population of Gambelia that is immune from this trajectory. The use of stimulant leaf, khat (which is illegal in western world) is also another factor.
Although some of those issues are hard to legislate or monitor by any government, in fact family role may be deem important to quell some of the problems affecting the Gambelia community. Then the government can fully focus or be expected to focus on others which are expected to be the work of the government.
For example, in Harar National and Regional State, the department of marriage does not issue marriage certificate for couples who do not present HIV Test Results to the department. The Gambelia state government needs to take a stand such as measures already undertaken by regional governments from various states in Ethiopia. The idea might sound weird and discriminatory in a way, but surely, it informs the public of what is expected of them once they choose to get married legally.
As for people who are already living with the disease in the region, they need to be encouraged to seek help. There also need to be a thorough education in the community to avoid any sort of stigma on people who lives with the HIV/AIDS. No one needs to be stigmatized for living with the virus. In fact its not a crime to talk or gossip about it.
Choosing to stigmatize others will only discourage more people from coming forward to get tested or seek help. This will have detrimental effect because when the virus I discovered late; it is often hard to contain. ‘
But if identified earlier, people can live much longer as they can get support with antiviral drug which contain the virus to infect more blood cells. They can live a normal live with no different in lifespan with those that are free from the virus.
