What Is The Aids Epidemic

Tribal Conflicts And Civil Wars

The Third World has been experiencing tribal conflicts and civil wars for a long time. The areas hit by these conflicts and wars do not have enough healthcare services to cater for the HIV/AIDS victims. These areas also do not get enough disease awareness programs and VCT services .

Most people affected by the conflicts and wars live in refugee camps. The camps are well known to be home to all sorts of evil, including drug abuse and prostitution which fuel the epidemic.

Unresolved Questions About Hiv Origins And Emergence

The discovery of the main HIV/SIV phylogenetic relationships permits explaining broad HIV biogeography: the early centres of the HIV-1 groups were in Central Africa, where the primate reservoirs of the related SIVcpz and SIVgor viruses exist similarly, the HIV-2 groups had their centres in West Africa, where sooty mangabeys, which harbour the related SIVsmm virus, exist. However, these relationships do not explain more detailed patterns of biogeography, such as why epidemic HIV-2 groups only evolved in the Ivory Coast, which is one of only six countries harbouring the sooty mangabey. It is also unclear why the SIVcpz endemic in the chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii did not spawn an epidemic HIV-1 strain to humans, while the Democratic Republic of Congo was the main centre of HIV-1 group M, a virus descended from SIVcpz strains of a subspecies that does not exist in this country. It is clear that the several HIV-1 and HIV-2 strains descend from SIVcpz, SIVgor, and SIVsmm viruses, and that bushmeat practice provides the most plausible cause of cross-species transfer to humans. However, some loose ends remain.

It is not yet explained why only four HIV groups spread considerably in human populations, despite bushmeat practices being widespread in Central and West Africa, and the resulting human SIV infections being common.

The Patient Zero Myth

For decades, a French-Canadian airline employee named Gaetan Dugas, has been known as Patient Zero in the 1980s AIDS epidemic.

Dugas, a man who had sex with men , died in 1984. Since then he has been blamed by some as a primary source for the spread of HIV in North America.

Dugas was one of the primary villains in the 1987 book, And the Band Played On, by San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts.

However, the researchers now say Dugas was falsely accused and unfairly blamed.

Gaetan Dugas is one of the most demonized patients in history, and one of a long line of individuals and groups vilified in the belief that they somehow fueled epidemics with malicious intent, said Richard McKay, D.Phil., a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Cambridges Department of History and Philosophy of Science, in a press release.

In fact, McKay says, Dugas actually provided scientists with valuable information before he died.

Dugas told researchers after he contracted HIV that he had 750 sexual partners the previous three years. That wasnt necessarily an unusual number. Researchers said 65 percent of men in a Los Angeles cluster study at the time reported having more than 1,000 sexual partners in their lifetimes.

Much of that sexual connection was with anonymous partners, so many HIV patients couldnt give medical officials any names.

However, McKay says, Dugas provided medical officials with 72 names. That helped scientists track down a wide range of people infected with HIV.

Also Check: Is Hiv An Infectious Disease

Impact On Gay And Bisexual Men

• While estimates show that gay and bisexual men comprise only about 2% of the U.S. population, male-to-male sexual contact accounts for most new HIV infections and most people living with HIV .58
• Annual new infections among gay and bisexual men declined overall between 2015 and 2019 but remained stable among Black and Latino gay and bisexual men.59
• Blacks gay and bisexual men accounted for the largest number of new diagnoses among this group in 2019, followed by Latino gay and bisexual men .60 Additionally, according to a recent study, Black gay and bisexual men were found to be at a much higher risk of being diagnosed with HIV during their lifetimes compared with Latino and white gay and bisexual men.61 Young Black gay and bisexual men are at particular risk â Black gay and bisexual men ages 20-29 accounted for 51% of new diagnoses among that age group and 13% of all diagnoses.62

Homeless People And Intravenous Drug Users In New York

A volunteer social worker called Betty Williams, a Quaker who worked with the homeless in New York from the seventies and early eighties onwards, has talked about people at that time whose death would be labelled as “junkie flu” or “the dwindles”. In an interview for the Act Up Oral History Project in 2008, she said: “Of course, the horror stories came, mainly concerning women who were injection-drug users … who had PCP pneumonia , and were told that they just had bronchitis.” She continues: “I actually believe that AIDS kind of existed among this group of people first, because if you look back, there was something called junkie pneumonia, there was something called the dwindles that addicts got, and I think this was another early AIDS population way too helpless to ever do anything for themselves on their own behalf.”

Julia Epstein writes in her book Altered Conditions: Disease, Medicine and Storytelling that: “As we uncover more of the early history of HIV infection, it becomes clear that by at least the 1970s the virus was already making major inroads into the immune systems of a number of diverse populations in the United States and had for some time been causing devastation in several countries in Africa.”

You May Like: When Does Treatment Of Hiv Typically Begin

Aids Research And Society

In June 2001, the United Nations held a Special General Assembly to intensify international action to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a global health issue, and to mobilize the resources needed towards this aim, labelling the situation a “global crisis”.

Regarding the social effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, some sociologists suggest that AIDS has caused a “profound re-medicalisation of sexuality“.

There has been extensive research done with HIV since 2001 in the United States, The National Institutes of Health which is an agency funded by the U.S department of Health and Human Services has substantially improved the health, treatment, and lives of many individuals across the nation. The human immunodeficiency virus is generally the precursor to AIDS. To this day there is no cure for this virus However, treatment, education programs, proper medical care, and support have been made available.

NIH, is coordinated by the Office of AIDS Research and this research carried out by nearly all the NIH Institutes and Centers, in both at NIH and at NIH-funded institutions worldwide. The NIH HIV/AIDS Research Program, represents the world’s largest public investment in AIDS research. Other agencies like the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have also made substantial efforts to provide the latest and newest research and treatment available.

• Heterosexual men accounted for 8% of new HIV diagnoses.
• Heterosexual women accounted for 16% of new HIV diagnoses.

Impact On Young People

• Teens and young adults continue to be at risk, with those under 35 accounting for 57% of new HIV diagnoses in 2019 .51 Most young people are infected sexually.52
• Among young people, gay and bisexual men and minorities have been particularly affected.53
• Perinatal HIV transmission, from an HIV-infected mother to her baby, has declined significantly in the U.S., largely due to increased testing efforts among pregnant women and ART which can prevent mother-to-child transmission.54,55,56
• A recent survey of young adults found that HIV remains a concern for young people, especially for young people of color.57

Don’t Miss: How Long Can You Live With Hiv Aids

The Importance Of Behavior

The critical role of behavior is the main lesson drawn from the success of Uganda in containing its HIV/AIDS epidemic . Many qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted at a small scale on the evolution of behavior in Uganda. Although they do not allow making direct comparisons in time, they led to the conclusion that attitudes and behaviors had changed notably in Uganda. More than 300 documents were examined by UNAIDS and allow to note a link between a decrease in the number of new infections and changes observed in condom use, age at the onset of sexual activity and sexual intercourse with multiple and non-regular partners.

In the developed world, the pandemic had first appeared and was confined to homosexual and injection drugs users populations and this is precisely why prevention policies were exclusively based on a safe behavior. This orientation was maintained in HIV/AIDS prevention policies in sub-Saharan Africa, which until recently focused on the ABC approach consisting in altering behavior by practicing Abstinence, Being faithful and using Condoms.

Canadian Flight Attendant Theory

A Canadian airline steward named Gaëtan Dugas was referred to as “Case 057” and later “Patient O” with the alphabet letter “O” standing for “outside Southern California”, in an early AIDS study by Dr. William Darrow of the Centers for Disease Control. Because of this, many people had considered Dugas to be responsible for taking HIV to North America. However, HIV reached New York City around 1971 while Dugas did not start work at Air Canada until 1974. In Randy Shilts‘ 1987 book And the Band Played On , Dugas is referred to as AIDS’s Patient Zero instead of “Patient O”, but neither the book nor the movie states that he had been the first to bring the virus to North America. He was incorrectly called “Patient Zero” because at least 40 of the 248 people known to be infected by HIV in 1983 had had sex with him, or with a person who had sexual intercourse with Dugas.

Don’t Miss: How To Clean Hiv Positive Blood Spill

A New Pattern Emerges

On June 5, 1981, CDC published a report in the MMWR describing requests for the drug pentamidine to treat a deadly disease called Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in five previously healthy young men in Los Angeles. After the reports publication, health officials also noticed a spike in cases of Kaposis sarcoma external icon among gay men in New York. Health officials were alarmed that outbreaks of both PCP and KS, which were rare, deadly diseases associated with immune suppression, appeared in the same part of the population.

Middle East And North Africa

HIV/AIDS prevalence among the adult population in the Middle East and North Africa is estimated less than 0.1 between 1990 and 2018. This is the lowest prevalence rate compared to other regions in the world.

In the MENA, roughly 240,000 people are living with HIV as of 2018 and Iran accounted for approximately one-quarter of the population with HIV followed by Sudan . As well as, Sudan , Iran and Egypt took up more than 60% of the number of new infections in the MENA . Roughly two-thirds of AIDS-related deaths in this region happened in these countries for the year 2018.

Although the prevalence is low, concerns remain in this region. First, unlike the global downward trend in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, the numbers have continuously increased in the MENA. Second, compared to the global rate of antiretroviral therapy , the MENA region’s rate is far below . The low participation of ART increases not only the number of AIDS-related deaths but the risk of mother-to-baby HIV infections, in which the MENA shows relatively high rates compared to other regions, for example, southern Africa , Asia and the Pacific .

Key population at high risk in this region is identified as injection drug users, female sex workers and men who have sex with men.

Read Also: How Many Medications Do Hiv Patients Take

Male Circumcision And Hiv

For years researchers have puzzled over why most West African countries have lower HIV-infection rates than southern and East African countries. They thought it might have something to do with the Muslim religion, widely practiced in West Africa, which imposes restrictions on womens sexual freedom. However, another likely factor is male circumcision, which is ritually practiced by Muslims and many others.

Several studies suggest that male circumcision protects both men and their sexual partners from HIV infection. This is not true of female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, which is extremely dangerous. In African countries where male circumcision is common, such as Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Benin, and the entire region of North Africa, HIV rates tend to be much lower than in countries such as Botswana, Malawi, and Swaziland. In countries with high rates of HIV, provinces and districts that have high rates of circumcision, such as Inhambane in Mozambique or Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, tend to have lower HIV rates.

Two African tribes with very high HIV-infection rates are the Zulu of South Africa and the Tswana of Botswana. Before colonial times, men in both tribes underwent circumcision rituals during adolescence. But when King Shaka united the Zulu tribe in the 1820s, he abolished the ritual, and when Christian missionaries settled in with the Tswana in the late 19th century, they declared circumcision a barbaric practice.

Dont Miss: The Hive Houses For Sale

What Is Hiv And Aids

HIV is a virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection, making a person more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. It is spread by contact with certain bodily fluids of a person with HIV, most commonly during unprotected sex , or through sharing injection drug equipment. If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS .

The human body cant get rid of HIV and no effective HIV cure exists. So, once you have HIV, you have it for life. However, by taking HIV medicine , people with HIV can live long and healthy lives and prevent transmitting HIV to their sexual partners. In addition, there are effective methods to prevent getting HIV through sex or drug use, including pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis . First identified in 1981, HIV is the cause of one of humanitys deadliest and most persistent epidemics. AIDS is the late stage of HIV infection that occurs when the bodys immune system is badly damaged because of the virus. In the U.S., most people with HIV do not develop AIDS because taking HIV medicine every day as prescribed stops the progression of the disease. Without HIV medicine, people with AIDS typically survive about 3 years. Continue reading from HIV.gov

You May Like: When Was The First Hiv Medication

Aids Epidemic Model Projection For Hiv/aids In Thailand 2010

Publications – Released in 2015

With the recent updates on the HIV epidemic status and the current program responses, the various strategic information, including updated surveillance results from the HSS and community behavioral surveillance and integrated behavioral and biomarker surveillance among different key populations, updated intervention program results , population structural change, etc. The Bureau of Epidemiology, in cooperation with the Thailand and the Thai Working Group on HIV/AIDS Projections , the A2 Thailand, and the Thailand MoPH-U.S. CDC Collaboration operate the Projection for HIV/AIDS in Thailand 2010 -2030 using the recent update version of Asian Epidemic Model, entitled AIDS Epidemic Model for HIV projection among adult 15+ years old and the Spectrum for HIV projection among children lesser than 15 years old.

Elisa: The First Hiv Blood Test

In CDCs immunology lab, scientists began working with AIDS specimens as early as July 1981 to understand how the immune systems of young, healthy men were so compromised by the mystery illness. In a photograph from 1983 displayed here, a female CDC research chemist conducts tests on biological fluids from AIDS patients. This work contributed to the theory that an infectious agent, not a genetic defect, was the cause of the disease. CDCs virology labs were among a network of international research centers searching for the virus believed to be the cause of AIDS.

By the next year, the U.S Food and Drug Administration licensed the first commercial blood test, ELISA, to detect HIV. Blood banks begin screening the U.S. blood supply. In a photograph on display, a different CDC lab technician is performing the ELISA test. Using a plastic plate with 96 wells, the lab technician adds the patients blood to different enzymes. Certain reactions between the blood and the enzymes indicated the presence of HIV antibodies.

You May Like: How To Know If I Have Hiv

Impact Across The Country

• Although HIV has been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. dependencies, the impact of the epidemic is not uniformly distributed.
• Ten states accounted for about two-thirds of HIV diagnoses among adults and adolescents in 2019 .31 Regionally, the South accounted for more than half of HIV diagnoses in 2019.32
• Rates of HIV diagnoses per 100,000 provide a different measure of the epidemicâs impact, since they reflect the concentration of diagnoses after accounting for differences in population size across states. The District of Columbia has the highest rate in the nation, compared to states, nearly 3 times the national rate and Georgia was the state with highest rate , twice that of the national rate.33,34 Nine of the top 10 states by rate are in the South.35
• New HIV diagnoses are concentrated primarily in large U.S. metropolitan areas , with Miami, Orlando, and Atlanta topping the list of the areas most heavily burdened.36