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AVERT is an international AIDS charity |
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It is estimated that 1.6 million people were living with HIV in high-income countries at the end of 2003 - a figure that includes the 80,000 who were newly infected during that year. AIDS claimed approximately 18,000 lives in 2003. The number of annual AIDS deaths has continued to slow in high-income countries, including those in Western Europe, due to the widespread availability of antiretroviral treatment. Longer survival of people living with HIV has led to a steady increase in the number of people living with the virus. The resurgence of other sexually transmitted infections in Australia, Japan, Western Europe and the United States of America points to a revival of high-risk sexual behaviour - especially among young people. For example, new syphilis cases reported among men who have sex with men in the Netherlands increased by 182% in 2002.In England and Wales, diagnoses of gonorrhoea at sexually transmitted infection clinics rose by 102% in 1995-2000, with the steepest increases occurring among older teenagers (aged 16-19). This would seem to indicate that current prevention activities are registering poorly among the current generation. A changing epidemicIn several Western European countries a larger proportion of new HIV diagnoses (59% more, overall, between 1997 and 2001) is occurring through heterosexual intercourse.1 In Western European countries that report HIV cases, this may now be the most common mode of transmission. Sex between men remains an important aspect of the epidemic in most high-income countries. In Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, it is the most common mode of HIV transmission, while in the United States of America (in 2002) and in Australia (in 2001) it accounted for 42% and 86% of new HIV diagnoses, respectively. The role of injecting drug use in the HIV epidemic varies among the high-income countries. In the United States of America and Canada, about 25% of newly acquired HIV infections have been attributed to injecting drug use, whereas, in Australia, injecting drug use accounts for less than 10% of new HIV diagnoses. In Europe, a little more than 1 in 10 newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2002 were caused by injecting drug use, although, in Portugal, this mode of transmission caused almost half the total HIV infections in 2002. (However, the country is seeing a significant inrease in sexually transmitted HIV infections, both heterosexual and between men.) These patterns underscore the need for prevention (and treatment) programmes that reach injecting drug users - including those in prisons and those who belong to marginalized minorities. In Canada, for example, aboriginal persons are overrepresented among injecting drug users. Japan is seeing a steady increase in the number of reported HIV infections. The number of new HIV cases reported annually has doubled since the 1990s to more than 600 in 2001 and 2002. This rise has been accompanied by an increase in other sexually transmitted infections over the same period, with the rate of Chlamydia rising by over 50% among women since 1995. There is also evidence of more widespread sexual activity among Japanese youth (reflected in the increase in the percentage of young people who have had sex by the time they turn 19 years of age). Spreading into marginalized communitiesThere is mounting evidence that prevention activities in several high-income countries are not keeping pace with the changes occurring in the spread of HIV. Such shortcomings are most evident where HIV is lodged also among marginalized sections of populations, including immigrants and refugees. In the United Kingdom (where the number of HIV diagnoses reported in 2002 was double that in 1998), 70% of heterosexually-transmitted HIV cases were among people who had acquired HIV while living in a country with generalized epidemics. It is vital that prevention, treatment and care programmes be adapted to reach all persons affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly those whose language, culture or immigrant status might limit their access to services. In the United States of America, around half of the approximately 40,000 new infections annually are occurring among African-Americans (12% of the country’s population), with African-American women accounting for an increasing proportion of new infections. Many of the women do not engage in high-risk behaviour, but are contracting HIV through unsafe sex with their male partners - a significant share of whom also have sex with men or inject drugs. The secrecy surrounding such overlapping risk behaviour seems rooted mainly in the stigma that remains attached to homosexuality. The costs are steep: AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African-American women aged 25-34. Overall, it is estimated that fully one-quarter of the 850-950,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the USA are unaware that they are HIV-positive. AVERT.org has many more HIV & AIDS statistics. Sources:
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Last updated November 29, 2004 | |