HIV Escalating; 20% Increase in Canada; Doubles to 40 Million Worldwide
Promiscuity Linked to Later Disabilities and to Early Death
More Than 1 Million in USA Infected with HIV: Abstinence Education Needed
UK: New STD Diagnosis up 62%
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HIV ESCALATING: 20% INCREASE IN CANADA; DOUBLES TO 40 MILLION WORLD-WIDE. There are now almost 58,000 people with HIV in Canada, up 20% from 2000, according to recently released figures from the United Nations and World Health Organization. Homosexual sex accounted for the majority of new cases, at 45%, while 25% of new cases were in women.
Ten years ago only 10% of new cases were in women. Heterosexual sex accounted for 30% of new cases, with intravenous drug use responsible for the remainder. Young women aged 15 to 29 were particularly affected, accounting for 42% of the new HIV cases in women, up from 13 percent 20 years ago.
A growing phenomena is the spread of HIV to women by so-called bi-sexual men who pass on infections acquired by homosexual sex to women sexual partners.
In the United States this is said to be an especially serious problem among black Americans. Recent studies suggest that 30 percent of all black bisexual men may be infected with HIV, and up to 90 percent of those men do not know. CDC researchers have referred to these men as a bridge to infection from gay men to heterosexual women In government studies of 29 states, a black woman was 23 times more likely to be infected with HIV than a white woman, and black women accounted for 71.8 percent of new HIV cases in women from 1999 to 2002. [April 4, 2004 New York Times]
World-wide, the number of cases has doubled to 40.3 million, compared to 1995. An added 5 million new cases were recorded in the last year, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa, at 3.2 million. At least half a million of the 3 million AIDS-related deaths were in children.
Its increasing everywhere, said World Health Organization director of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Jim Yong Kim. The report illustrates very clearly that we really are failing in attempting to prevent the epidemic in the rest of the world. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the number of people living with HIV has increased twenty-fold in less than 10 years [UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot].
Uganda and Tanzania are the only sub-Saharan countries that have experienced continued declines. In the two African countries, the declines in HIV rates have been due to changes in behavior, including increased use of condoms, people delaying the first time they have sexual intercourse, and people having fewer sexual partners, Dr. Piot said at a launch of the 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, in Delhi.
Dr. Piot includes condoms as a measure that has helped slow HIV transmission, whereas the real success in diminishing transmission rates has been an ongoing abstinence campaign by Ugandan President Museveni and his wife, First Lady Janet Museveni, whose success has been likened to a highly effective vaccine.
Reasoning that HIV is spread mainly through sexual contact, the Ugandan government decided in the early 1990s that the best way to prevent that spread would be to convince its citizens to adopt sexual abstinence and fidelity within marriage. This inexpensive, indigenous program required little outside funding or support and the results are acknowledged to be astonishing. The Ugandan HIV/AIDS rate fell by half, from 15% in 1991 to 4% by 2004. [25Nov05, LifeSiteNews.com; T Vanderheyden and S Jalsevac, OTTAWA]
PROMISCUITY LINKED TO LATER DISABILITY, PREMATURE DEATH. Jan05 CDC study warns that the prevalence of STDs in the US is having a serious impact on the rates of disability & premature death.
In 1998, ~30,000 deaths related to STD infections, esp HIV/AIDS & cervical cancer from HPV. The US incidence for STDs was 3 times the average rate of other developed countries. STDs accounted for 20 million cases of adverse health problems, [i.e. infertility & tendency to miscarriage].
CDC reported 2 million years of life were lost as a result of STDs in 1998 disability adjusted life years, or DALYs. Meanwhile, UK new STD numbers have doubled in the last 5 years. [27Jan2005, Sexually Transmitted Infections; 20Sept05 LifeSiteNews.com]
Related: Canada’s Sexual Diseases from Bad to Worse; no Plan to Alter Failed “Safe-Sex”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jun/04061109.html
New UK Abortion/ STD Statistics: 1 in 5 Babies Killed; Teen STDs Doubled. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/mar/04033104.html
UK Study Reveals Teen Reproductive Health Sites Increase STD and Out-of-Wedlock Births
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/apr/04040501.html
ABSTINENCE EDUCATION NEEDED: More Than a Million in USA Live With HIV
The CDC reports: 1,039,000 – 1,185,000 Americans were living with HIV in Dec 2003.
The previous estimate (2002) showed that 850,000 – 950,000 people had AIDS. The jump reflects the role of medicines that have allowed people infected with the virus to live longer.
The jump reflects the role of medicines that have allowed people infected with the virus to live longer, said Dr. Valdiserri [deputy dir, CDC’s National Ctr for HIV, STD & TB Prevention].
“While treatment advances have been an obvious godsend to those living with the disease, it presents new challenges for prevention,” Valdiserri said.
Recent outbreaks of HIV and STDs in major cities around the
country offe
r a hint that new infections may be as high as 60,000 cases a year, rather than 40,000, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, [Emory Univ prof of medicine]. [AP, 06/13/05; 13June05, Abstinence Clearinghouse]
UK : NEW STD DIAGNOSIS IS UP 62 PERCENT. New STD diagnoses in the United Kingdom are up 62 percent from just 10 years ago, according to a new report made by Britains Health Protection Agency.
According to Professor Peter Borriello, Director of the Health Protection Agencys Center for Infections, favorable attitudes towards casual sex are to blame.
Significant increases in Chlamydia, Syphilis, and HIV diagnoses have drawn national concern. Chlamydia diagnoses have risen 9 percent in the past year, but some health authorities suspect that the actual figure could be as much as six times higher than currently assessed. Syphilis numbers have risen 37 percent since 2003. Health officials are also greatly concerned about an estimated 20,000 people who have HIV, but are unaware of their condition.
(Source: The Independent (London), More Casual Sex by Young People Drives Disease to Record High, 11/25/05, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article329191.ece)
Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update, 14Dec05]