After this week's AIDS Day, it is time to enjoy the progress in Africa. And at the end of the HIV section in Norway.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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MODERN TIMES LEADER 03.12.2010: Campaign. "I don't know much about HIV and AIDS from before. I associate it most with developing countries. ”
This was stated by Thomas Albertsen Dahlen (19), from NRK's popular sexual program "Threesome", to VG on World AIDS Day. So Wednesday 1. December. Dahlen, along with his co-program leaders, will front a new campaign against HIV and AIDS.
And that may be needed, as Dahl's own statements suggest. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers the earth's HIV infection to be a pandemic. About 50 million people are infected, over the last 30 years more than 25 million have developed AIDS and passed away with death.
Here in Norway too, the disease is serious enough. So far this year, 200 new HIV cases have been reported in the country, figures released by the Institute of Public Health on Wednesday show. HIV is not "only" for gays, ie a minority disease. About 50 new cases a year occur among heterosexuals, 30 fewer than for gay men. About 4000 Norwegians live with HIV today.
Basically, it can still be easy to link HIV and AIDS to "developing countries," as Dahlen does, implicitly with Africa. And given that nearly 60 percent of HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa, it's easy to let the disease remain an "African problem" globally, as it quickly becomes a "gay problem" here at home.
Own African hive type
But these figures quickly prevent us from gaining a deeper insight into the "why" HIV infection is widespread as it is. First, HIV-infected people in both India and southern Africa are infected with HIV-type C, one of the ten HIV mutations that exist. In the USA and Europe, on the other hand, type B is fought almost exclusively, and that is where the research billions have been pumped in. But as Ny Tid reported on October 22, Indian and South African researchers are now joining forces on a research project to find antibodies against this African and Indian HIV type, as has been done in the richest countries with the B-type.
For new research, which was presented on Wednesday at St. Johns Medical College in Bangalore, India, shows that type B is precisely a mutation that spreads more easily among gays. While type C, which characterizes India and South Africa, is a form that is far more contagious in heterosexuals. "Most researchers now realize that the treatment that works against one subtype of HIV will not be effective against another," said lead researcher Ujjwal Neogi at St. Johns.
It turns out that the first forms of HIV in India appeared as early as 1956. There is often an indirect moral condemnation of promiscuous Africans and vigilant when most Norwegians talk about "all the heterosexual Africans", or all Western gays, who are HIV-infected. But the statistical differences can thus have purely medical reasons.
And then there is the treatment for the infected, not least, which affects the frequency of AIDS deaths. Then it is gratifying to report that progress is also being made in this area in sub-Saharan Africa. In Rwanda, for example, mother-to-child transmission has fallen from 11 per cent in 2004 to 2,7 at the beginning of this year. And 72 percent of Rwandan HIV-positive children now receive treatment, up from just 10 percent in 2005.
Paragraph 155 of Norway
The same is true of Secretary General Kjersti Fløgstad, Secretary General of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), after a trip around an African country. In Mozambique, more than 80 percent of women now test themselves. UNICEF believes that an HIV-free generation is possible within a few years. If we just believe and bet on it.
We can take some steps at home as well. Section 155 of the Norwegian Penal Code means that HIV-infected people can receive up to three years in prison for negligently exposing others to the risk of infection. The Red Cross Youth leader Knut Sverre spoke this week in favor of removing the so-called HIV section from the penal code, since it leads to stigma and works against its purpose.
It seems like a sensible move. HIV out the HIV clause.