World Aids Day

[RayKay]

December 1, 2005 is World AIDS Day, it is the annual, and international day of action to increase awareness and education about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

 

Tragically, sometimes it now seems as if we need this day to remind people how dangerous and deadly it is. For those of you who did not grow up, or whom do not remember, when HIV/AIDS first became an issue, you may not even realize how it truly changed the world. With the advancement of medication to prolong the life of someone infected with HIV, it also seems there has been an increase in apathy about the disease.

 

However, that apathy can be deadly. There have been new strains of HIV popping up that are resistant to the drugs, and that turn into full blown AIDS within weeks, and where death occurs quite quickly.

 

HIV/AIDS is not a gay disease, it is not a third-world country disease, it is not a male disease, or a promiscous disease. HIV/AIDS is EVERYONE'S disease.

 

By 2010 it is estimated that 93 MILLION people will have been killed by AIDS.

 

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I found the following information on :

 

By the end of 2003, there were 37.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS, including 17 million women and 2.1 million children under the age of 15.

 

 

4.8 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2003, including 630,000 children.

 

 

In 2003 alone, a total of 2.9 million people died of HIV/AIDS-related causes.

 

 

UNAIDS predicts that an additional 45 million people will become infected with HIV in 126 low-and middle-income countries by 2010, unless the world succeeds in mounting a drastically expanded, global prevention effort.

 

Global Disparity

 

Global trends of infection emerging from the HIV/AIDS pandemic:

 

 

96% of people with HIV live in the developing world, most in sub-Saharan Africa

 

 

After sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean is the region with the world’s second highest HIV prevalence rate.

 

 

An estimated 5 to 6 million people in low- and middle-income countries will die in the next two years if they do not receive antiretroviral treatment (ART). As of the end of 2003, only an estimated 7% who need ART were receiving it.

 

 

In some parts of Africa, one-third of all pregnant women have HIV/AIDS. In Swaziland, for example, nearly 40% of pregnant women are HIV-positive

 

 

In low- and middle-income countries, there is at least a 20% likelihood that an HIV-positive breastfeeding mother will pass the virus onto her newborn child. At least a quarter of newborns infected with HIV die before age one, and up to 60% will die before reaching their second birthdays

 

 

Adult infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa have reached as high as 37% in Botswana and 39% in Swaziland.

 

 

In the Russian Federation, more than 90% of the estimated one million people living with HIV were infected through injecting drug use, but they make up only 13% of those receiving antiretroviral therapy.

 

 

 

Women and AIDS

 

By the end of 2003, women accounted for nearly half of all people living with AIDS worldwide, and represent almost 60% of infections in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, young women are several times more likely than young men to contract the disease through heterosexual contact. Worldwide, 62% of infected young people are girls, and that number soars to 75% in sub-Saharan Africa. A woman’s vulnerability to the virus is attributable not only to biological differences, but also to deeply entrenched socio-economic inequalities that further compound her risk.

 

Because 70% of the world’s poor are women, women have fewer economic options. They are far more vulnerable to engaging in transactional sex to pay for food, school fees and other necessities. They are also vulnerable to coercive or forced sex and often unable to negotiate condom use.

 

Many women, particularly married women, cannot control the circumstances under which sex takes place. Women are especially unable to negotiate sex or condom use with a husband who may have extramarital partners. Some research indicates that married women are in fact more at risk for HIV than unmarried women because they are more frequently exposed to intercourse within marriage.

 

HIV-positive women may transmit HIV to their children during pregnancy, in childbirth or through breastfeeding. Today, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV is the primary mode of acquisition of HIV for the more than 2 million children living with HIV. While antiretroviral therapy significantly reduces the risk of MTCT of HIV, only 1% of women in need currently have access to this preventive therapy.

 

As AIDS ravages families and communities, the burden of caring for ill family members rests mainly with women and girls — many of whom may be seriously ill themselves. A woman affected by HIV/AIDS is plunged further into poverty, losing the ability to provide for herself and her children. Combined with pervasive social stigma and the collapse of traditional family and support structures, HIV/AIDS is eroding the status of women in many countries.

 

 

Reasons for Hope

 

Left untreated, AIDS is 100% fatal; however, life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs have begun to transform HIV from an inescapable death sentence into a manageable condition for those, primarily living in developed countries, able to purchase them.

 

One of these drugs, Nevirapine, has been clinically proven to significantly reduce mother-to-child transmission, when given to pregnant mothers and children shortly after birth. See for more information about the range of HIV/AIDS medications on the market.

 

The National AIDS Program of Brazil has successfully offered universal access to treatment while conducting an aggressive HIV prevention campaign. In May 2003, the program was presented with the $1 million Gates Award for Global Health at the Global Health Conference.

 

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which was founded in July 2001 with contributions of US$1.3 billion by G8 leaders at the UN General Assembly’s first special session focusing on HIV/AIDS, shows the international community’s increasing commitment to address the pandemic ().

 

While many have been disappointed by the Global Fund’s substantial financial shortfall from the amounts suggested by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, (US $7-10 billion annually), a new initiative by the U.S. government, committing US $15 billion dollars over the next five years, including US$10 billion in new money to fight HIV/AIDS, is very promising if fully funded. For more information, see .

 

Top scientists from around the world are committed to vaccine development, which remains one of the greatest hopes the world has for preventing transmission of the disease. Clinical trials are now ongoing in Thailand, the Netherlands, Canada, Trinidad and the United States.

[annie24]

Thank you for posting this RayKay. It is very important information that people need to protect themselves.

[SexySadie7]

Great Post RayKay.

People DO have to realize though that condoms CAN and often do fail. In this day and age of so much promiscious sex, this can be a fatal mistake if you pick the wrong partner.

Testing is so, so important. Get an AIDS test today. It's just a simple blood test, that only takes like 10 minutes. You can get the test results usually within a week.

Go have an AIDs test today. Protect your future partners!

[Hope75]

Great post indeed, Raykay.

 

We just covered a unit on HIV and AIDS in nursing school, and the numbers are devestating indeed. It IS everyone's disease, affecting all ages, genders, socioeconomic classes, people of all levels of education.

 

It's important to know that you CANNOT contract HIV or AIDS from casual contact. It is spread through blood and body fluids, and is a fragile virus and difficult virus to spread, believe it or not! It dies very quickly in an environment outside of a white blood cell. Don't be afraid to hug or touch someone with HIV. Imagine how isolated you would feel if people were afraid to touch you.

 

Ignorance breeds fear and contempt, know your facts before you spout them off.

 

Most of all, it's important that we protect ourselves from HIV by having protected sex. 40,000-60,000 people per year are infected in the US alone, despite education and knowledge how to prevent it from happening. Sexual transmission is the most common way the virus is spread.

 

There is no cure. Once you get the virus, you will eventually die from complications of immune system shutdown such as opportunistic infections, cancers which are prevelant in AIDS infected people, or a simple cold that turns into pneumonia because your body cannot fight it off. There is no cure. The only way is prevention.

 

If you have engaged in unprotected or risky sexual behaviours, including oral or anal sex, have yourself tested. Remember that HIV has a window period of 6-12 weeks after infection before the body builds up antibodies, and during that time frame your HIV test will come up negative. It's important to have a follow up test at least 3 months after exposure to the HIV virus, or unprotected or risky sexual behavior. If diagnosed early enough, there is alot that can be done with antiretroviral drugs to maintain immune system function for as long as possible.

 

The face of AIDS is not so different from our own. Don't think that you can "tell" if a person has AIDS simply by looking at them-- though in advanced disease this may be true. People can live up to 20 years before showing significant symptoms....that's why it is so crucial that we stop the spread of this virus by protecting ourselves.

 

Ray Kay, thanks again for bringing much needed attention to this worldwide epidemic. The best prevention is education and knowing how to protect ourselves, and them doing just that.

[RayKay]

Great post Hope to add to it all!

 

I saw some recent statistics on the shocking rise of HIV/AIDS again in young people, and especially in young heterosexual women.

 

There is a new HIV/AIDS campaign, where the commerical shows a young couple, looking in love, with some stat that a majority of people never tell their partner they have HIV.....because they don't even know THEY have it.

 

Don't die from apathy, get tested, and play safe.

[BellaDonna]

Excellant post!

 

As with any other topic related to consequences of sex such as pregancy, STD's, etc. I think the most important thing for people to realize is that THEY ARE NOT INVINCIBLE!

 

As people, we tend to have the false belief that "That won't happen to ME" . We all do it. It's part of human nature. But don't believe in this illusion of immortality, immunity and invincibility. You are no different than anyone else walking the Earth. If you have unprotected sex- you CAN get STD's period, and no method of protection is 100% foolproof.

 

Trying to comfort yourself and say it can't or won't happen to YOU is the worst attitude you can take toward this because you are seriously putting yourself and others at risk. Ask yourself how many AIDS patients once fooled themselves into believing: "That won't happen to ME"

 

Be smart. Be safe.

 

 

BellaDonna

[Hope75]

Excellent point BellaDonna, and so true! How many times have we all said that?

 

It can happen to any one of us, and if we don't protect ourselves and others we can contribute to the spread of this incurable disease.

 

Dying from AIDS is a terrible, painful, slow way to die. No one deserves this fate.

 

Please, please be honest with yourselves and be realistic. It can happen to you and if you don't take measures to see that it doesn't, you are playing Russian Roulette with your life.

[darkblue]

A much needed thread; with great points.

 

Please, please be honest with yourselves and be realistic. It can happen to you and if you don't take measures to see that it doesn't, you are playing Russian Roulette with your life.

I agree, hope.

 

However, there are many people who are infected with the HIV virus who may not know it, or will not admit it - thereforeeee you can never be sure.

 

If you have had sexual intercourse with partners who you have no knowledge of their past - you may be carrying a STD right now.

Similiarly, if you have had sex with multiple partners.

Get tested, be safe.

This can and does happen to normal people.

 

There was a problem in south Africa some years ago, whereby a rumour was spread by the Government that only virgin women were safe to have sex with.

This resulted in mass rapes of virgin women by some men who were infected with the virus - thus spreading the virus even more out of control.

A horrible story with a powerful message.

You do not know who you are having sex with, until they are tested.

 

It is not uncommon or unacceptable to ask your partner to have a test.

It is safe, and safety should be first.

 

I urge people in any doubt to have a test carried out.

 

Let's stop this widespread disease, with knowledge.

[RayKay]

Actually darkblue, the rumour is more specific in that it said if you had sex with a virgin/young girl you would RID yourself of the virus.

 

And it is still a myth that goes on and is acted upon today unfortunately, and not just in Africa.

 

From:

 

Added to that, however, is the rumor in parts of Africa, including large portions of South Africa, that having sex with a virgin will cleanse a male of AIDS. The Johannesburg city council conducted a three-year study of about 28,000 men. They found that 1 in 5 believed in the virgin-AIDS cure. The fallout from that is a rise in assaults of women and children, some of whom contract AIDS themselves.

 

Of particular alarm has been the rise in infant rapes. Not all researchers blame that on the virgin-AIDS cure myth, but they believe it has contributed to it. The rape of the nine-month-old by six men in Upington at the end of 2001 enraged many South Africans. That was followed by the discovery of a seven-month-old who had been raped and left for dead in a suburb of Capetown in November, 2001. There have been other high profile cases since.

 

The belief in the virgin-AIDS cure is not restricted to Africa. According to a Knight-Ridder report from Mark McDonald in January of 2000, it is also helping fuel an increase in child prostitution in Cambodia. McDonald says there are many Asian men who believe that having sex with a virgin will cleanse their AIDS. The same is true for India, according to the Fall, 1995 Harvard AIDS Review, and Jamaica, according to the Ministry of Health in Jamaica. The belief in curing AIDS by having sex with a virgin is apparently an outgrowth of a long-standing belief in many cultures in the restorative and healing powers of virgins and having sex with virgins.

 

 

Also there is more information at:

[darkblue]

Even worse! That is despicible.

 

Thanks RayKay.

[RayKay]

Even worse! That is despicible.

 

Thanks RayKay.

 

Yup I know. It is horrible, and just shows how much it's not an issue we can just "forget about" because we have treatments, education is just as important as finding a cure at this point.

[Hope75]

It is not uncommon or unacceptable to ask your partner to have a test.

It is safe, and safety should be first.

 

Well said, Darkblue. It might be added that if your partner is unwilling to be tested, the relationship (or at least the sexual aspect of it) should be deeply reconsidered. Someone who cares for you should be more than willing to see that your sexual health is not at risk, as well as their own.

 

I remember reading about those virgin/infant rape stories. Horrifying, absolutely sickening.

[ShySoul]

I can't really add much more in the way of statistics or rumors and facts. But I can say that HIV/Aids is a serious problem that we should all be aware of. Take the time to learn about it. If possible, take the time to help work for a cure, every little bit counts. And just because this is the assigned day for AIDs awareness, keep it in your thoughts all year round.

[fantasia2004]

Thank God. raising awareness is the key to educating others

[justify_yourlove]

I would like to extend my thoughts as well and thank you for posting!