AIDS is a devastating disease of the late 20th Century 1. It was estimated by UNAIDS (the United Nations committee for AIDS) and the World Health Organisation that the number of people living with HIV or AIDS at the end of the year 2001 was 40 million. This is more than 50% higher than projected in 1991. During this year, 5 million new HIV infections were reported, equating to 14,000 every day. More than 95% are found in developing countries 2. Figure 2 on page 3 illustrates the global distribution of HIV/AIDS cases.
Fig.1 – graph showing the growth of HIV Eastern Europe and Central Asia There were an estimated 700,000 sufferers by the end of 2000. That is a massive increase of 66% since 1999, from 420,000 that year. Most are male injecting drug users. This dramatic jump has caused new epidemics in Estonia and Uzbekistan. Another true reflection of this is in Russia. They have experienced a huge growth in incidence rates, as 50,000 new sufferers were registered within the first 9 months of 2000, whereas between 1987 and 1999, only a total of 29,000 were registered.
However, the national registration system is very poor, and therefore only a fraction of infections are acknowledged. Once again, IDU’s are the majority of sufferers. Many of the countries within these regions are working against a complicated background. As many of them are Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC’s), they are less affluent than MEDC’s, and so have a greater reliance on commercial sex as a source of income. Also, social instability has led to high drug use.
However, political and legal reforms are taking their effect on HIV prevention methods. Less mass screening has led to more effective prevention and education methods. In Kazakhstan, a small Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) in the capital Astana sends its 8-man team on to the streets, and provides safe sex Fig. 2 – map showing the global distribution of HIV/AIDS cases information and condoms for the sex workers there. Also, the team escorts them to Sexually Transmitted Illnesses (STI) clinics to be treated free of charge.
3 More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) There were an estimated 30,000 new sufferers of the disease in Western Europe and 45,000 in North America by the end of 2001 – showing no drop in HIV prevalence rates. Most of these are IDUs. However, there seems to be a growing complacency amongst the gay community and safe sex. Due to the stigma of homosexuality commonly found in many Western countries, greater risk-taking activities are being undertaken, for example, the lack of condom use.
Numerous prevention programmes such as AIDS education, condom promotion, needle exchanges and drug treatment have proven indispensable in not only MEDCs, but Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) too. For example, Belarus marked the success of it’s “harm reduction programme” by averting 2000 new infections by its second year, at a cost of a mere US$29 per infection prevented. Condom rates otherwise seem to be high 4.