How HIV Affects the World, and What We’re Doing About it

While HIV and AIDS are having more of an impact than ever on environmental wellness, the main concern for the diseases still remains for human health and wellbeing. Across the world, AIDS affects the wellness of over 30million people, causing infection, discrimination and death. By the end of 2015, the United Nations hope to achieve certain targets which will help to eliminate this disease from the face of the planet.

 

Target One: To reduce sexual transmission of HIV by 50%.

According to UK research, more and more gay men are getting receptive to the idea of safe sex, and they strongly advocate the use of condoms. This is promising, as is the increasing use of sex education and safe sex awareness programmes in schools, as the majority of HIV-infections occur in young people, sex workers and homosexuals.

 

Target Two: To eliminate vertical transmission of HIV and reduce maternal death by 50%.

To stop mothers passing on HIV to their babies – whether before or after birth – there are more effective antiretroviral medicines being brought out, the practice of caesarean section is being enhanced and HIV-positive women are being educated on the dangers of breastfeeding.

 

Target Three: To completely prevent new HIV infections among drug users.

82 countries have introduced NSPs (Needle and Syringe Programmes), and 70 countries have introduced OST (Opioid Substitution Therapy), to reduce the risk of HIV among drug users.

 

Target Four: To ensure those who can be treated have complete access to antiretroviral therapy (ART).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is providing countries with ongoing guidance, tools and support to make ART available for all HIV-positive people who can be treated. This therapy includes three drugs which helps to suppress the spread of HIV.

 

Target Five: To cut TB deaths among HIV sufferers by half.

As WHO and its partners work together to advocate joint TB/HIV prevention, policy development and implementation in various countries, the health organisation recommends 12 different TB/HIV collaborative activities, and provides a number of tools and guidelines for their implementation.

 

Target Six: To reduce discrimination.

Discrimination causes sufferers not to seek help, and can lead to depression and even suicide. Therefore, laws are being released in order to promote the policies which ensure the full realisation of human rights and fundamental freedom.

Categories: drug users, health organisation, HIV, hiv infections, HIV Positive, nbsp, nbsp target, reduction, safe sex, target, Targets, tb hiv

What Can Be Done to Reduce HIV Amongst Young People?

With World AIDS Day on the horizon (December 1^st), wellness experts in the US are focusing on teens and young adults, as this subsection of the population accounts for a disproportionate number of HIV infections. This follows a recent report from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has found that very few young people are getting tested for HIV.

 

HIV affects the wellbeing of 13- to 24-year-olds each year, with people in this age bracket making up more than a quarter of new infections in the US. Moreover, over half of those who are infected have no idea that they are HIV-positive, and could be risking their own wellbeing as well as the sexual health of others. CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden comments, ‘Given everything we know about HIV and how to prevent it after more than 30 years of fighting the disease, it is just unacceptable that young people are becoming infected at such high rates.’

 

The latest CDC analysis, which was published online as part of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at data from a diverse population of youth using two key sources: the 2009 and 2011 Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System for 9th to 12th grade students and the 2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for young adults between ages 18 to 24. According to the report, there were about 12,200 new infection of HIV among this age group in 2010, and the highest rates were among bisexual and gay young men (72%) and African-Americans (57%).

 

Rates of HIV are most common in communities with low incomes, as they face lack of access to healthcare, stigma, discrimination and a prevalence of unrecognized and untreated infections. Frieden notes, ‘As we work to drive down new HIV infections in all populations, we have to give particular attention to the next generation, especially African Americans and gay and bisexual young men. Every young person should know how to protect themselves from HIV and should be empowered to do so.’ Since young people often do not seek health care on a regular basis, the CDC is pushing for more widespread testing and education about the virus both in healthcare settings and in communities.

 

However, the Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a survey that shows greater awareness of HIV, particularly among higher risk populations. In a group of 1,437 youth ages 15 to 24, African American young adults were three times more likely to cite HIV and AIDS as issues of personal concern than their white counterparts, and Latino youth were twice as likely. Tina Hoff, senior vice president and director of health communication and media partnerships at Kaiser Family Foundation, explains, ‘We saw striking differences, most notably among race. This is a generation that has never known a time without AIDS and may see the end of it. I think there is a lot of hope for this generation. They are motivated to respond and ready to be active about it.’

 

In both reports, stigma is cited as one of the key culprits behind young adults being kept in the dark about their status, although such discrimination isn’t as prominent as it once was. The Kaiser survey noted that one in three young people say there is still “a lot” of stigma around HIV/AIDS in the US, while 52% assert there is still “some.” So what can be done to battle the stigma associated with HIV? Frieden says, ‘All Americans can talk honestly and open about HIV to help combat the stigma and fear that keep people from seeking prevention and treatment. Dramatically reducing HIV among young people is going to require that all of us do our part.’

Categories: african americans, family foundation, HIV, hiv infections, kaiser family, people, Research, young, young adults, young men, young people