About HIV
Prepared by: Sandra Fowler, MD, MSc, Eve Spratt, MD, MSCR, Sarah E. Cupit
A GLOBAL ISSUE
HIV remains a major public health concern for the whole world. AIDS is caused by the
virus called HIV (human immunovirus) and is a leading cause of death globally and remains the primary cause of death in Africa (UNAIDS, 2007). Over 42 million people are living with documented cases of HIV/AIDS worldwide. There are about 14,000 new HIV/AIDS infections daily worldwide. At least half of the over 5 million new infections worldwide each year occur in people between the ages of 15 and 24. Over 22 million people have died from documented cases of HIV/AIDS worldwide.
This epidemic of HIV/AIDS has made a dramatic and sad impact on people around the world. However, no other continent has been as deeply impacted by this tragic and preventable illness as Africa. Families are losing income due to caring for dying family members with AIDS and children are being orphaned due to this disease. An understanding of the impact of this illness is becoming more apparent as the social, economic and health consequences are being felt by more and more families. Of greatest concern is the impact that this epidemic will have on families and young children in the future decades.
Both HIV prevalence rates and the numbers of people dying from AIDS vary greatly among African countries. The Sub-Saharan region of Africa is more heavily affected than any other area of the entire world. Approximately 74 percent of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Every hour 3 infants are infected with AIDS
- A child dies from an AIDS-related illness every 20 minutes
- Children on the streets are at risk of malaria, cholera, HIV/AIDS, violence and trauma
- An estimated 22.5 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2007
- Approximately 1.7 million additional people were infected with HIV during 2007
- In the past year, the AIDS epidemic in Africa has claimed the lives of an estimated 1.6 million people in this region
- As of 2005, an estimated 15.2 million children under age 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS (Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS, Geneva, p. 509)
- The United Nations estimates that worldwide nearly 25 million children will be orphaned by HIV/AIDS by the year 2010
- By the year 2010, there will be 18 million AIDS Orphans in the continent of Africa. (UNAIDS, 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update)
HIV/AIDS IN GHANA
Ghana's estimated population in July 2005 was 21,029,853. UNAIDS estimates that by the end of 2005, 320,000 (2.3 percent of adults ages 15-49) were living with HIV/AIDS. The prevalence is higher in women. An estimated 60 percent of HIV cases occur among women (ages 15-49). That same year, deaths due to AIDS were estimated at 29,000. In addition, 25,000 children ages 0-14 were living with HIV/AIDS and 170,000 living children under the age of 17 lost their mother or father or both parents to AIDS. Lack of information about HIV remains an issue as 44 percent of men and 38 percent of women ages 15 to 24 could correctly identify ways to prevent HIV. Yet 83 percent of men and 50 percent of women in that same age range reported sex with a casual partner in the past 12 months.
Affordability of medical care continues to be an issue. UNAIDS estimates that 78.5 percent of the population in Ghana lives on less than US$2 a day. Only 1.3 percent of pregnant women are receiving treatment to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Only 7 percent of HIV-infected men and women receive antiretroviral therapy.
Sources:
UNAIDS 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. May 2006
CIA World Factbook 2005
WHAT IS HIV?
Infection with the HIV virus can occur to nice normal people. The people spreading the illness may not know that they even have it. The virus can be spread if people do not have healthy practices to prevent the possibility of the infection with the virus. There have been tremendous advances in the medical treatment of the virus but often people do not even know that they are infected. Medications can be useful but they are very expensive and although they are typically available in the United States, they are not always readily available to everyone in Africa. Also there are barriers such as availability and transportation to medical care as well as the stigma of letting people know of the illness.
Q & A
Q: What is AIDS and how can you get it?
A: HIV is a virus that attacks your immune system. Your immune system fights infection in your body. Having HIV makes it easier for your body to get sick. HIV causes AIDS. A person with the viral infection does not have AIDS unless their viral load reaches a critical point and the cells that fight infection reach a critically low point.
Q: How is HIV spread?
A: The virus can be spread by contact with infected blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk.
Q: My friend is HIV positive. Do I need to worry about catching it?
A: HIV is NOT transmitted by hugging, kissing, or other casual contact.
CHILDREN ORPHANED BY HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA
Orphaned and vulnerable children are far more likely to be exposed to a lack of family support, violence/traumatic events, exploitation, disease, and malnutrition.
Orphaned and vulnerable children taken into families are significantly more likely to be sent to work, including some of the most dangerous child labor known.
Typically, families that accept orphans and vulnerable children turn them out because of a lack of capacity to pay for school fees.
Eight out of every ten children in the world whose parents have died of AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa.
HIV 101
TRANSMISSION
- HIV requires intimate exchange of body fluids (especially semen and blood) for transmission. It is NOT transmitted by casual contact. Specifically, HIV is transmitted by:
- Sexual contact (includes oral sex, though this is less common than genital sex, and anal sex). Transmission of the HIV virus from males to females is more likely than female to male transmission. Latex or polyurethane condoms used correctly and consistently for both oral, genital, and anal sex can greatly reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
- The sharing of needles and/or syringes, primarily among injection-drug users can cause transmission of the virus. Needle stick injuries to health care workers can result in transmission, especially with large bore needles or large volumes of blood. However, HIV cannot survive more than a few hours on surfaces.
- Other blood-borne transmission can occur when mucous membranes or skin are exposed to infected blood, such as might occur with blood splashing into the eye or mouth. With rigorous testing of the blood supply, HIV transmission from blood transfusion is approximately 1 per 2.5 million units of blood transfused.
- Transmission from mother to infant occurs while the fetus is still in the mother's uterus, during birth, and/or from breastfeeding. In the US, where perinatal prophylaxis of mother and infant are routine, and breastfeeding is discouraged among HIV+ mothers, the rate of mother to infant transmission is less than 2 percent. In the developing world, vertical transmission (from mother to baby) occurs in about a third of infants born to HIV+ mothers.
- When blood or body fluid exposure is likely to occur in the home or health care setting, universal precautions should be followed. These guidelines include the following:
- Gloves should be worn during contact with blood or other body fluids that could possibly contain visible blood, such as urine, feces, or vomit.
- Cuts, sores, or breaks on both the care giver's and patient's exposed skin should be covered with bandages.
- Hands and other parts of the body should be washed immediately after contact with blood or other body fluids, and surfaces soiled with blood should be disinfected appropriately. A solution of 10 percent household bleach in water is effective in cleaning surfaces likely contaminated with HIV (e.g. blood splashed on a table or floor).
- Practices that increase the likelihood of blood contact, such as sharing of razors and toothbrushes, should always be avoided.
- Needles and other sharp instruments should be used only when medically necessary and handled according to recommendations for health-care settings. (Do not put caps back on needles by hand or remove needles from syringes. Dispose of needles in puncture-proof containers out of the reach of children and visitors.)
