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Facts
- World AIDS Day, December 1, helps us focus on the spread of the disease. It celebrates the progress made in the battle against the pandemic, and focuses attention on the continuing challenges caused by the spread of HIV.
- There were 33 million people, including 15.4 million women and 2. million children under 15 years of age, living with HIV in 2007 a rise from 29 million in 2001.
- Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS –It has more than two thirds (67%) of all people living with HIV and is where more than three quarters (72%) of all AIDS-related deaths in 2007 occurred.
- Lower HIV transmission rates among young people in Sub-Saharan Africa suggests that HIV prevention efforts might be having an impact in several of the most affected countries. The annual number of new HIV infections among children worldwide has declined since 2002, as services to prevent mother-to-child transmission have expanded.
- In virtually all regions outside of sub-Saharan Africa, HIV disproportionately affects injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, and sex workers.
- About one third of countries lack laws protecting people living with HIV from discrimination.
- Almost 3 million people in low and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral medicines in 2007.
Source:
http://www.unaids.org/
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Background
The HIV/AIDS pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges facing developing
countries. HIV/AIDS threatens to reverse decades of hard-won development gains.
It attacks people in their most productive years, destroys families and communities,
and places heavy financial burdens on the economy.
What is HIV/AIDS?
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection causes a gradual depletion
and weakening of the immune system. This results in an increased susceptibility
of the body to infections, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, and can lead
to the development of AIDS. Most people infected with HIV do not know that they
have become infected, because no symptoms develop immediately after the initial
infection but they are highly infectious and can transmit the virus to another
person.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the term applied to the most
advanced stages of HIV infection. The majority of people infected with HIV,
if not treated, develop signs of AIDS within 10-15 years.
Who is affected? How does it spread?
Globally, the people most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS include:
- the poor
- women and girls
- people with multiple sex partners
- injecting drug users
- children of infected mothers
HIV is spread through sexual intercourse; blood transfusion; the sharing of
contaminated needles in health care settings and through intravenous drug use;
and from mother to infant, during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Religious,
cultural, political and economic differences mean that different countries have
different rates and profiles of infection. However, societies which have high
levels of poverty and large populations that engage in risky behaviour - such
as unsafe sex and injecting drug use - have higher rates of HIV infection.
Conflict and displacement can lead to increased spread of HIV/AIDS as social
networks are disrupted and sexual exploitation is used as a weapon.
The AIDS epidemic is affecting women and girls in increasing numbers. Females
are biologically more vulnerable to HIV than males. For physiological reasons,
women are twice as likely as men to acquire HIV from a single act of unprotected
vaginal sex. In many countries, women and girls are also socially and economically
more vulnerable. Social and cultural factors mean they are less likely to be
able to control with whom, when and how they have sex, and be educated in how
to protect themselves from the virus.
Human and social impact
People's lives are affected in many ways which include:
- a wide variety of physical health problems
- social isolation due to the stigma and misunderstanding of the spread of
the disease
- altered family responsibilities - grandparents caring for large numbers
of grandchildren
- children orphaned, and left to live alone and fend for themselves
- loss of cultural traditions as parents and key community members die before
children are able to absorb their knowledge
- loss of healthy adults, which means less ability to grow food and earn an
income
- loss of income, which makes people less able to access health care, education,
and food, which, in turn, means they are less able to develop fully and protect
themselves against exploitation and are likely to fall further into debt
Economic impact
Families suffer major economic problems as productive adults become ill, including:
- loss of income as family members become sick and are unable to work, or
have to give up work to care for the sick
- limited income being consumed by expensive drugs and funerals
Countries suffer significant economic impacts including:
- loss of investment in education and the knowledge and skills of professionally
trained people
- reduced ability to produce food
- reduced ability generate income from internal sales and exports
- high costs of treatment and demands on health systems
Prevention and treatment
There is no effective cure for HIV. Antiretroviral drugs, combined with good
nutrition and good health care to fend off opportunistic infections, can limit
the effects of HIV. Yet this treatment is not available for many people living
with HIV. The cost of antiretroviral drugs is prohibitive, and good nutrition
and health care are also costly in communities which have high infection rates.
International advocacy has contributed to the dramatic price reduction in drugs
for low-income countries but antiretroviral drugs and a health care system to deliver them generally remain out of reach
of the majority of people living with HIV/AIDS in poor countries.
Prevention is an important factor in limiting the spread of HIV. Although approaches
vary, depending on the religious, social, cultural and political influences
in a country, there is increasing commitment to coordinate regional programs.
Education and awareness programs targeting vulnerable populations are most effective
where there is political will to confront the issues openly. In many countries
stigma and discrimination prevent effective treatment, and support and behavioural
changes are slow.
Australia's response
The Australian Government’s HIV strategy goal is to make a significant and sustained effort to achieve the MDG target of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015, by assisting partner countries to achieve universal access to HIV, treatment, care and support.
Australia will deliver its international HIV development assistance by focusing on six priorities. These priorities will support partner countries to:
- intensify HIV prevention
- optimise the role of health services within HIV responses
- strengthen coordination and capacity to scale up HIV responses
- review legal and policy frameworks to enable effective response to HIV
- build the evidence base for an effective HIV response
- demonstrate and foster leadership on HIV
Sources: http://www.ausaid.gov.au/keyaid/hivaids/default.cfm
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/keyaid/health.cfm
The global agenda
The Millennium Development Goals
At the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, 189 world leaders from rich and poor countries committed themselves to a set of eight time-bound targets. Goals focus on reducing poverty and hunger, child mortality and the spread of disease and improving education and gender equality, Goal 6 specifically focuses on combating HIV/AIDS.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
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