Enkidu

HIV Prevention

by Bradford McIntyre, Positively Positive , Canada

With antiretroviral therapies and fewer deaths associated with these HIV/AIDS treatments, many people have discontinued safe sex practices. HIV infection is not disclosed to partners and sex without a condom is increasing at alarming rates. So now HIV infection is on the rise again. There is no doubt this situation is going to have an enormous effect on all our lives. The United Nations predicts "AIDS will cut population by 300 million; 300 million fewer people in the world by the year 2050 from the impact of AIDS."

People think because we have antiretroviral therapies there is no need to practice safe sex or worry. There is no guarantee these medications will work on everyone! An infected individual may be resistant to all the drugs taken by the person who transmitted the disease. Multiple sex partners means multiple infections can occur with the likelihood of infection with more than one HIV strain. This places an individual in greater danger of illness and or death as well as any person they infect. Some strains of HIV have been shown to cause illness and death rapidly regardless of immune status. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C. Being infected with HIV may also include being infected with Hepatitis C along with other sexaully transmitted diseases such as; syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, human papilloma virus (HPV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), and hepatitis A, B, and/or C.

There is the perception that if you are infected, HIV is manageable. Managing HIV/AIDS can become a full time job! It involves management of your health through doctors' appointments, hospital visits for blood work and appointments at hospital pharmacies to pick up your necessary HIV/AIDS medications. You must manage the side effects of the drugs and drug resistance. There are the demands of managing to overcome each opportunistic infection. All of these are essential to manage to stay alive!

HIV infection does not occur without an opportunity! HIV can be stopped, but without more public awareness of the risks involved, safe sex practices and the realities of people living with HIV, the numbers of infections will continue to grow and more lives devastated! UNAIDS estimates as many as two thirds, of the 45 million new HIV infections expected by 2010 could be prevented if prevention programs were immediately expanded.

Bradford McIntyre
Positively Positive

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Febrero 2007