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dijous, 26 de desembre de 2024

> The Critical Situation in Africa

> Women and AIDS

> No Access to Medication

dimarts, 30 de novembre de 2004

The 1st of December is World AIDS Day, which aims to raise awareness of the urgency of fighting this disease that is spread all over the world, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries.

The day will pay special attention to women and girls because the number of AIDS cases has increased considerably among the female population. This has been stated in the annual report on AIDS by UNAIDS, the joint programme of the United Nations Organisation (UN) that deals with the disease.

The data in the report state that the number of infected persons continues to grow. There are currently almost 40 million infected people in the world, or more accurately 39.4; of these, almost five million contracted the disease in the course of 2004, while the number of AIDS-related deaths during the same period has surpassed the three million mark.

These dramatic figures reveal the insufficiency of the efforts made, even as the financial resources earmarked for the fight against AIDS have tripled since 2001.

+ Webs relacionades dins Nosaltres.Com: Sida

The Critical Situation in Africa

+ Sub-Saharan Africa is the most afflicted region by AIDS in the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa is by a long way the region that is most afflicted by AIDS, as is illustrated by the terrible figures compiled by UNAIDS: 25.4 million people are living with HIV (the acronym for Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which makes up 64% of the total cases in the world, and 2.3 million people have died of the disease in 2004. In fact, in nine Sub-Saharan countries, all seriously affected by AIDS, life expectancy at birth is below 40 years.

Women and AIDS

+ Women are biologically more susceptible to the disease.

As we said above, the UNAIDS report alerts us to the increase in AIDS cases among the female population. Of the 40 million people infected with AIDS in the world, nearly half are women and girls. This is a very different situation to the one a few years ago. Various factors can explain this trend, particularly the dearth of information, discrimination against women in many countries and the fact that women are biologically more susceptible to the disease. The trend is most pronounced in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, but it is in Sub-Saharan Africa where the percentage of women with HIV is highest: almost 57%.

No Access to Medication

+ There is an estimated 39.4 million people living with HIV globally.

Until an effective vaccine against AIDS is discovered, education, social and economic equality, a strong commitment by governments and international bodies and access to antiviral medication are crucial for fighting the disease. Unfortunately, the figures relating to this last point are not encouraging: of the 5 million people needing antiviral therapy, only 440,000 get it, the vast majority of them in developed countries.

MATERIALS

UNAIDS
Format:Web
Programa de l'ONU per a combatre la sida. Enclou el text íntegre de l'informe del 2004 sobre la malaltia, i parla del Dia Mundial de la Lluita contra la Sida.
Sida
Format:Web
Pàgina del Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya, centrada en la sida: informació bàsica, epidemiologia, actualitat, prevenció...
Sida. Saber Ajuda
Format:Web
Programa educatiu per a conèixer i prevenir la sida.
Centre Jove d'Anticoncepció i Sexualitat
Format:Web
Servei d'atenció específica als adolescents, de caràcter preventiu, que conté, entre més coses, informació sobre la sida i els mètodes anticonceptius.

QUE HO SABIES?

The country with most cases of AIDS is the Republic of South Africa, where there are 5.3 million, according to estimates from the end of 2003.
Seventy-six percent of women living with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Between 2002 and 2004 in Eastern Asia, the number of people infected with the disease increased by almost 50%, and by 40% in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.