December 1st is AIDS Day!
AIDS: Some facts
1. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
2. This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumours.
3. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk.
4. This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.
5. AIDS is now a pandemic.
6. In 2007, it was estimated that 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and that AIDS killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children.
7. Over three-quarters of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.
8. According to UNAIDS 2009 report, worldwide some 60 million people have been infected, with some 25 million deaths, and 14 million orphaned children in southern Africa alone since the epidemic began.
9. Genetic research indicates that HIV originated in west-central Africa during the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
10. AIDS was first recognized by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981 and its cause, HIV, identified in the early 1980s.
11. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV can slow the course of the disease, there is no known cure or vaccine. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but these drugs are expensive and routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries.
12. Due to the difficulty in treating HIV infection, preventing infection is a key aim in controlling the AIDS pandemic, with health organizations promoting safe sex and needle-exchange programmes in attempts to slow the spread of the virus.
Source: Wikipedia
President of the Sri Lanka College of Venereologists Dr. G. Weerasinghe
Dr. Weerasinghe explained that it is estimated that there are 3000 people living with HIV. "From the end of the last year, we had 1196 AIDS cases detected which increased to 1285 which was detected in the third quarter of this year (September 2010)," said the doctor.
He said that they are already working with sex workers who come to the clinics to get their free condoms
and there are issues where the police have used condoms as a motive to arrest sex workers who engage in prostitution," said Dr.Weerasinghe.
The problem with AIDS is that the victim can lead a perfectly normal life as the first signs of HIV virus multiplication begins in about seven years but it takes a good 10 to 15 years for symptoms to really show," he said.
After the treatment period with drugs, there is a six to nine month gap where one can't detect the HIV due to various reasons.
But if someone knows they have AIDS and purposely doesn't tell the other person and transmits the virus to them, the other party can file a lawsuit against them which can be upsetting for both parties," said the doctor.
It has been reported that an estimated 35 children are living with HIV in Sri Lanka and 46 cases have been detected which has resulted in some deaths.
"The protection of human rights is fundamental to combating the global HIV and AIDS epidemic and everyone should be responsible for helping and treating AIDS patients without discrimination," said Dr. Weerasinghe.
MORE FACTS
The three main transmission routes of HIV are:
1.sexual contact
2.exposure to infected body fluids or tissues(Unsafe needles)
3.from mother to fetus or child during perinatal period
The majority of HIV infections are acquired through unprotected sexual relations between partners, one of whom has HIV
The primary mode of HIV infection worldwide is through sexual contact between members of the opposite sex
During a sexual act, only male or female condoms can reduce the risk of infection with HIV and other STDs. The best evidence to date indicates that typical condom use reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission by approximately 80% over the long-term, though the benefit is likely to be higher if condoms are used correctly on every occasion
Randomized controlled trials have shown that male circumcision lowers the risk of HIV infection among heterosexual men by up to 60%.
AIDS was first reported June 5, 1981, in the U.S.
AIDS is caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Sub-Saharan Africa and was transferred to humans during the late 19th or early 20th century.
Two types of HIV infect humans: HIV-1 and HIV-2.
The pandemic strain of HIV-1 is closely related to a virus found in the chimpanzees of the subspecies Pan troglodytes troglodytes, which lives in the forests of the Central African nations of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo (or Congo-Brazzaville), and Central African Republic.
HIV-2 is less transmittable and is largely confined to West Africa, along with its closest relative, a virus of the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys atys), an Old World monkey inhabiting southern Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and western Ivory Coast.
the virus was transmitted from a ape or monkey to a human when a hunter or bushmeat vendor/handler was bitten or cut while hunting or butchering the animal.
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