I recently stumbled across the UN AIDS epidemic update [PDF]. On reading through it, I realised that a lot of the things I had believed about AIDS were no longer true now in 2010. I’ve gone through everything I found interesting the paper and listed them here. I think you’ll find a lot of things that you though were true are actually no longer true.
- AIDS is not spreading. AIDS has stabilised worldwide, and the number of new infections is only slightly higher than the number of deaths. Since the 2000s, the number of people living with AIDS has stayed the same or dropped slightly.
- Circumcision prevents AIDS. The UN says “Clinical trials have confirmed the results from observational epidemiology that male circumcision reduces transmission of HIV among men”
- Warzones in Africa have some of the lowest prevalence of AIDS. The richest African countries have the highest AIDS rate
- Divorced and widowed people are the most likely people to have AIDS in Africa
- AIDS does not seem to go over national borders, and is VERY regional. To quote: Adult HIV prevalence in Côte d’Ivoire (3.7%) is more than twice as high as in Liberia (1.7%) or Guinea (1.6%), even though these West African countries share national borders (UNAIDS, 2008). Within the relatively small nation of Benin, a more than 12-fold variation in HIV prevalence among pregnant women (ranging from 0.4% to 3.8%) has been documented among the country’s deparments
- There has been a pervasive stereotype that in countries where men have multiple concurrent partners, there is a higher rate of AIDS. Well, according to the UN paper, “there is no significant correlation between prevalence of sexual concurrency and HIV prevalence at the country or community level.” So this stereotype is just wrong. See Page 30 of report
- 42% of all people affected with HIV have the drugs, compared to 7% in 2002. Remember September 11th? At that time, 5% of people had access to HIV medicine. Now it’s almost half of all people
- Condom use in South Africa is now 65% from 35% in 2002
- HIV rates in sexual workers in Africa range from 19% to 49%. Having sex with a sex worker is a very very risky proposition
- Southern India has as high HIV rate as West African countries, while North India has rates comparable to the U.S
- 15% of sex workers in Southern Indian States are HIV positive
- In Pakistan, 28% of female sex workers have never HEARD of AIDS in their life
- Eastern Europe & Central Asia are the only regions in the world where HIV prevalence is rising
- Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate in Europe (1.6%)
- Treatment Coverage in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is 22%, lower than in Africa (45%)
- Ukraine Sex workers HIV infection rate ranges from 13.6% to 31.0%
- Antiretroviral Coverage in Latin America at 54% is higher than the world average, and is higher in Southern America than in Central America
- Male injecting drug users in Tijuana who had been deported from the USA were more than four times more likely to be living with HIV than male injecting non-deportees
- 21% of people living with HIV in the U.S are unaware of their status
Instead of saying “Circumcision prevents AIDS”, you should probably say it “helps prevent”. I don’t mean to be a grammar nazi, but this point of distinction could be important for people who skim blogs too quickly.
OK, now thats pretty scary when you think about it dude.Jesswww.internet-anonymity.se.tc
Circumcision DOES NOT prevent AIDS! There has been 1 highly criticized study that claims that “circumcision REDUCES the transmission of HIV among men,” as you quoted above. This clearly DOES NOT mean it PREVENTS AIDS. To say so is irresponsible. Furthermore, condom use REDUCES the transmission of AIDS much more effectively than the study claims circumcision does. Lopping off the penis entirely probably would reduce the transmission further. Study data is still pending on this.