Thread: UN: HIV Infections Growing In Russia, Ukraine

UN: HIV Infections Growing In Russia, Ukraine
Thursday, December 01, 2011



The World Health Organization says new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia increased by 250 percent from 2001 to 2010.

In information released to mark the annual World AIDS Day, the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) says Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to show "dramatic growth" in the number of HIV infections.

WHO says new infections in the region have increased by 250 percent from 2001 to 2010.

And it said some 90 percent of the infections in the region occur in just two countries: Russia and Ukraine.

The UNAIDS organization, designed to bring UN agencies together to fight HIV transmission, said injecting drug use remains the leading cause of HIV infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia -- although "considerable" transmission also occurs among the sexual partners of people who inject drugs.

The UNAIDS reports said that after slowing in the early 2000s, HIV incidence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia has been accelerating again since 2008.

It adds that unlike most other regions, AIDS-related deaths continue to rise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The report has praise for Iran, saying HIV prevalence has "declined steadily" in the country since peaking in 2005 -- in part due to efforts by authorities to address health problems among injecting drug users.

The report says there is a network of more than 600 clinics that address drug injection, HIV and sexually transmitted infections in Iran, and that authorities have implemented programs to provide clean needles and opioid substitutes to injecting users. The report says an estimated 15 percent of people who inject drugs in Iran are living with HIV.

Worldwide, the UN says the number of new HIV infections fell to 2.7 million in 2010, down from 3.1 million in 2001. The UN says HIV/ AIDS have killed more than 25 million people over the past three decades. It says approximately 34 million people were living with HIV in 2010.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), at its most advanced stage of infection, becomes AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

rferl.org

Originally Posted by Mid

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), at its most advanced stage of infection, becomes AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

AIDS and HIV

Understanding what it means to be HIV positive is relatively simple -- either you are infected with the virus or you aren't -- but how do you understand AIDS?

AIDS, which stands for "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome" is a way of describing a whole group of symptoms and diseases associated with the damage HIV does to the immune system.

As an HIV infection progresses, there is ongoing damage to immune defense cells and the body becomes increasingly less able to fight off infection.

This means that individuals with advanced HIV disease are susceptible to infections that don't show up in people with healthy immune systems.

They are called opportunistic infections because they take advantage of the weakened ability of an HIV positive individual to fight off disease.

The difference between AIDS and HIV is that a person is said to have AIDS, as opposed to simply being HIV positive, when either the numbers of specific types of cells in their immune system drop below a certain level or when they develop one of a specific group of opportunistic infections.

It is important to know that a person can live with HIV for many years without developing AIDS or any symptoms of HIV infection. This is why it is important to be regularly tested for the virus. Even if a person does not know they are infected, however, they can still transmit the virus to other people through unprotected sex and other risky behaviors that directly expose other people to their blood, semen, breast milk, and other potentially infectious bodily fluids.

HIV is not spread through casual contact.

std.about.com

Population is generally decreasing there as well, due to low birth rates, and high mortality due to things like alcoholism.
Russia seems more and more like Scotland every day...