Key note address was delivered by Longyim Tzudir, DPO, DAPCU where he mentioned that World AIDS Day celebration has become the most recognized health days celebrations internationally. None of us thought about the fact that some of us were having sex with men who were having sex with other men who may have contracted the virus. People had to take 4-5 pills every four hours, through the day and night, and endured awful side effects such as nausea, vomiting and nerve pain. That proper treatment can suppress the virus means that we can see the secondary illnesses that HIV can cause. There is clearly a need to focus much greater attention on prevention of HIV infection for adolescents and particularly for adolescent girls. During this time, people living with HIV often advanced to fullblown AIDS and then died.
Advertisement
But the truth is this: while over 600,000 African Americans are now living with HIV, and there are as many as 30,000 newly infected each year, there is still within Black communities at least one in five living with HIV and unaware of their infection; and, they are disproportionately heterosexuals.
The evidence shows that intimate partner violence increases the risks of HIV infection by 50 per cent and that there is a direct link between childhood abuse and HIV infection – both immediately and in later life.
The Kumasi metro Youth coordination of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Amponsah George Orwell, lauded the effort by JCI to fight HIV stigma He urged all to stamp out stigma “if we want to help eradicate HIV/AIDS in Ghana”.
“We have invested massively in life saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVS), making our HIV treatment program the biggest in the world”, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a ceremony marking World AIDS Day, held in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
“Massive steps have been taken to make ART available to all who need but gaps still remain”, Jesuit Father Paterne Mombe, AJAN director, said in a December 1 statement.
The face of HIV in the Philippines is getting even younger.
Sub-Saharan Africa has always been known to have the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world.
That’s Jacob Dougherty, an HIV testing coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
India’s AIDS programme has been largely successful – estimates showed HIV prevalence during 2007-15 declined from 0.34 per cent to 0.26 per cent among adults, while annual HIV-related deaths declined by more than half to 67,000.
“We have also been able to provide social support and interventions for persons who are unable to provide the required diets”, said Natasha Lloyd-Felix, head of Saint Lucia’s Bureau of Health Education, adding that they also provide support for persons whose children may have been orphaned as a result of losing parents to AIDS. The world joined forces to do what we believed was impossible – to make it possible for millions of people in very poor parts of the world to access complex treatment.
He said the speakers at the vigil hope to encourage people to know their status and get tested. “In addition, although gay men are 40 times more likely to get HIV than the general population, that figure rises sharply to 72 times more likely among Black gay men”.
Advertisement
The United Nations (UN) claimed the number of people living with AIDS had doubled compared to 2010 and reached almost 16 million.
