XPost: alt.politics.homosexuality, hiv.aids.data, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.atheism   
   From: Trdell1234@---gmail.com   
      
   On Mon, 11 Nov 2013 23:30:02 +0100 (CET), "Nancy Pelosi Facts"   
    wrote:   
      
   >HIV epidemics are becoming more concentrated in marginalized   
   >groups such as sex workers, drug users and gay men, and could   
   >defy global attempts to combat AIDS if attitudes do not change,   
   >a U.N. expert said.   
   >   
   >Michel Kazatchkine, U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern   
   >Europe, says he would like to be able to celebrate without   
   >reservation global progress made in the past decade, but   
   >stubborn infection rates and alarming growth of outbreaks in   
   >hard-to-reach populations make that difficult.   
   >   
   >The risk, he says, is that as the world turns the tide of the   
   >global AIDS epidemic, the virus will return to being a disease   
   >that plagues only certain groups and the political will to   
   >overcome it may fade.   
   >   
   >"If we do not address the roots of the problem, if we do not   
   >address stigma, discrimination and inappropriate legislation, if   
   >we don't look at these people from a public health perspective,   
   >rather than from a delinquent, criminal perspective as we do   
   >now, then the trend will only go on," he said in an interview.   
   >   
   >"Then the AIDS epidemic will become more and more a sum of these   
   >concentrated epidemics."   
   >   
   >Extraordinary progress   
   >   
   >Some 35.3 million people worldwide are infected with the human   
   >immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, but the rising   
   >number of patients reflects great strides in recent years in   
   >developing sophisticated HIV tests and combination AIDS drugs   
   >and getting them to many of those who need them to stay alive.   
   >   
   >The annual AIDS death toll is falling, dropping to 1.6 million   
   >people in 2012, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005, and   
   >there are also steadily declining rates of new HIV infections: a   
   >third fewer in 2013 than in 2011.   
   >   
   >The progress has generated much hope about the possible end of   
   >AIDS, or a potential world without HIV, or the chance of an AIDS-   
   >free generation, in our lifetimes.   
   >   
   >Kazatchkine, who was due to speak at a City Health Conference in   
   >the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday, refers to both the   
   >progress and the hope as "extraordinary".   
   >   
   >"I'm really concerned about the future of the AIDS epidemic,   
   >especially at a time when we are perhaps a little too optimistic   
   >because of the huge progress we are making from a technological   
   >and scientific perspective," he said.   
   >   
   >"As we celebrate the extraordinary progress, we should also be   
   >conscious that we will not stop HIV and AIDS by just having more   
   >sophisticated drugs and only focusing on the generalized   
   >epidemic and not focusing enough on the complexities of the   
   >concentrated epidemics."   
   >   
   >The worrisome groups are fairly clearly defined: Injecting drug   
   >users, who can pass the AIDS virus to each other by sharing   
   >needles and syringes, prostitutes and sex workers, who are often   
   >criminalized and have little access to health services, and gay   
   >and bisexual men - the population in which the HIV epidemic   
   >started.   
   >   
   >A tale of two women   
   >   
   >To illustrate how little has changed in the battle against HIV   
   >among drugs users - particularly in regions such as Eastern   
   >Europe and central Asia - Kazatchkine tells of two women.   
   >   
   >The first is Andrée, a drug user he met in Paris in 1986 who had   
   >no hope of effective HIV treatment, since there was none yet   
   >developed, and who ultimately died a lonely death. The second   
   >was Larissa from Yekaterinburg in Russia, a drug addict   
   >repeatedly arrested and locked up, deprived of medications for   
   >years and at one time sentenced to five years in a labor camp.   
   >   
   >"These stories are remarkably similar," he said. "But Larissa's   
   >is not from 1986, it's from this year. Some 25 years passed   
   >between my meeting these two women, but their predicament was   
   >depressingly, tragically, the same."   
   >   
   >Among gay men, Kazatchkine said, the situation is little better.   
   >In poor and middle-income countries, men who have sex with men   
   >(MSM) and female sex workers are 19 and 13 times more likely to   
   >have HIV, respectively, than the rest of the population.   
   >   
   >Even in wealthy regions like western Europe and North America,   
   >HIV rates among gay men - or MSM as Kazatchkine refers to them -   
   >stubbornly refuse to shift.   
   >   
   >HIV among gay men   
   >   
   >"In MSM populations, there is no sign it has decreased," he   
   >said. "It has either been a stable number of new infections   
   >every year for 10 years, or it is an increasing trend. And this,   
   >in western Europe at least, is in the context of basically free   
   >and easy access to therapy and services."   
   >   
   >Elsewhere, in China, for example, gay men alone account for more   
   >than 33 percent of new HIV infections, and projections indicate   
   >that gay men may account for half or more of all new infections   
   >in Asia by 2020.   
   >   
   >Kazatchkine admits that he is as frustrated and worried now,   
   >faced with these smaller but relentless HIV epidemics, as he was   
   >more than a decade ago when the vast generalized HIV and AIDS   
   >outbreak in Africa looked too overwhelming to begin to tackle.   
   >   
   >"We are a bit in disarray. We don't know quite what it is that   
   >we should do. Here we are, we have all the technology, we have   
   >extraordinary scientific progress, and we just cannot translate   
   >that into making a difference in these populations."   
   >   
   >Yet if nothing changes, the AIDS virus may never be beaten.   
   >   
   >Kazatchkine called for a "shift in the collective mindset" to   
   >put equity and human rights at the center of the battle against   
   >HIV in these groups: "If we do not deliver the right response,   
   >we will fail to deliver an end to AIDS," he said.   
   >   
   >http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/11/04/could-concentrated-hiv-   
   >epidemics-make-aids-unbeatable/?intcmp=obnetwork   
      
      
   Without a vaccine I don't see HIV going away ever.  The fastest   
   growing rates are in Africa.   
      
   http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/hiv-aids-101/statistics/   
      
   http://www.avert.org/usa-hiv-aids-statistics.htm   
      
   HIV top 10 States   
      
      
   http://theboxhouston.com/1599631/the-10-states-with-the-highest-   
   idshiv-rate-is-your-state-on-the-list/   
      
      
   --   
   All it takes for bad people to prevail, is for good people to do nothing   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)