A common misconception is that because we hear less about HIV/AIDS these days, the situation must be improving. But HIV has become one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with UNAIDS reporting 2.1 million AIDS deaths in 2007.
The rate of new HIV infections appears to have peaked from 3.2 million new infections globally a year in the late 1990’s to about 2.5 million in 2007 – a figure that nevertheless represents 6800 new infections each day. Despite a fall in new infections, there are increased numbers of people living with the virus due to better treatments, longer survival times and a growing world population.
UNAIDS identifies two major patterns of epidemic within the AIDS pandemic – the generalised epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, and the epidemics that in the rest of the world are concentrated in ‘at risk’ populations – men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, sex workers and their sexual partners.
The majority of people living with HIV and high risk groups receive no prevention, care or treatment despite the establishment of new agencies and funding sources to the pandemic. The same factors that have affected transmission locally – wealth, education, socio-economic status, and minority status – affect the global distribution of HIV. Lack of money and infrastructure pose significant barriers to testing, treatment and prevention, fuelling epidemics in poorer countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, home to almost 68% of the pandemic, only 12% of men and 10% of women get tested for HIV.
Children continue to be hit hard – in 2007 there were 2.5 million children living with HIV worldwide. Globally the count of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS has reached 15.2 million. Living with HIV or losing family to AIDS has made it harder for children to access education, placing them at greater risk of suffering socially and physically.
It was originally projected that we would have to wait 10 years for a vaccine. Twenty-six years later the quest is ongoing. Although some people have remained asymptomatic for many years, no-one has actually recovered from the virus in a way that could inform vaccine development. While the search for a vaccine continues, preventing transmission remains a key focus, with major AIDS organisations like amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) promoting the slogan ‘Prevention is the Cure’.
The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) used World AIDS Day to remind us that HIV infections have been on the rise in all Australian states except NSW for the past 5 years. Executive Director Don Baxter says, ‘Unfortunately we are no closer to a magic bullet that will prevent HIV – health promotion that supports people to sustain behaviour change is the best tool we have – so prevention remains everybody’s business.’
The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is
Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise
First we need to make the promise… a promise to sustain a culture that promotes safe sex as relevant and necessary. And a promise to remember the global picture, which is of unacceptably high levels of suffering amongst those with the least power.
Kirk Rowley
