May 2005
Up to 30% of SA miners HIV+

Cape Town - Up to 30% of South African miners suffer from HIV/Aids, posing one of the greatest challenges to the sector, Mineral and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday.

"Individual mines have done prevalence studies and the results are not readily available - estimation is 20% to 30% of miners are affected," Mlambo-Ngcuka told parliament.

"HIV/Aids remains one of the biggest challenges in the mining industry," said Mlambo-Ngcuka, adding that there was a general commitment from the industry to deal with the pandemic.

Mines in South Africa employ more than 500 000 workers, or 4.3% of the country's total workforce, and the sector accounts for about a third of all exports.

A new report by the Medical Research Council showed that Aids was the number one killer in South Africa , with one in three people dying from the disease.

On Thursday, Mlambo-Ngcuka said mining companies had made commitments to introduce measures on preventing and monitoring HIV/Aids as well as treatment programs.

The plans were expected to be introduced in the second quarter of this year, she said.

South Africa has the world's highest Aids caseload, with 5.3 million people, or an estimated one out of five adults living with HIV and Aids, according to United Nations figures. (News 25)



March 2005
Latest Aids Statistics

One in 100 US deaths is related to sexual behavior
New York Jeanne Lenzer

More than one in every 100 deaths in the United States can be attributed to sexual behavior, according to a new study (Sexually Transmitted Infections 2005;81:38-40). Rates of illness and premature death attributable to sexual behavior in the United States are triple the rates in other wealthy nations, the authors say.

Using updated data from the 1996 US burden of disease study, the researchers reported that 29 782 deaths in 1998 could be attributed to sexual behavior, constituting 1.3% of all deaths in the United States that year. They calculated a total of more than one million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) in 1998 and more than 20 million adverse health events attributable to sexual behavior. DALYs are a time based composite of years of life lost to premature death or disability.

Adverse events quantified by the researchers included infertility, cervical cancer, hepatitis, and other infections attributable to sexual activity. Elective abortions were included in adverse events but not in the DALYs. More than 7500 DALYs for every 10 000 people were attributable to sexual Behaviour, according to the researchers.

More deaths attributable to sexual Behaviour occurred among men (19 634) than among women (10 148), and 18 221 of the deaths in men were caused by HIV or AIDS. Cervical cancer attributable to sexually transmitted disease was the leading cause of death among the women, claiming the lives of 4921 women. HIV or AIDS was the cause of death for 4234 women.

Although cervical cancer caused more deaths than HIV and AIDS in women, the estimated DALY for HIV among women was almost double that for cervical cancer, as cervical cancer tends to occur later in life.

Dr Shahul Ebrahim, senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and lead author of the study, said that the higher disease burden in the United States is due to both a higher prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and to worse health outcomes among those affected.

HIV and AIDS were responsible for a large part of the higher prevalence, he said. The greater disease burden, or DALY, per person in the United States was due, in part, to the country’s heterogeneous population, with "gaps in between socioeconomic groups" and "gaps in access to care and prevention."

Dr Ebrahim said the key message of the study is that virtually all of the deaths and disability attributable to sexual Behaviour can be prevented by the "ABC" approach: abstinence, be faithful, and use condoms.

Countries that have successfully reduced the burden of disease from sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV and AIDS, include Senegal, Thailand, and Uganda, according to Dr Desmond Johns, director of the New York office of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS. These countries, said Dr Johns, keep the overall prevalence of HIV and AIDS down through "massive political mobilization" and addressing sexual issues "openly and honestly." In this way these countries have been able to reduce the prevalence of both HIV and AIDS from roughly 25% to 30% to less than 10%.

"The greatest factor in dealing with HIV/AIDS," said Dr Johns, "is dealing with all the social and moral baggage that comes with discussions about sex, gay sex, and drug use." British Medical Journal

15.2% South Africans have Aids

Johannesburg - The HIV prevalence rate in 2004 was estimated to be 15.2% in 2004 compared with 14.79% in 2003, 13.05% in 2000 and only 3.82% in 1994, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday.

Aids has "cost" South Africa an estimated 1.7 million people as the population of South Africa was estimated to be 46 586 607 in the middle of 2004, while without the Aids epidemic, South Africa's population would have been 48.3m.

Statistics South Africa estimated that the percentage of Aids deaths increased from 6.8% in 1995 to 34.4% in 2000 and is likely to be 50.8% in 2005.

HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees has risen from only 0.7% in 1990 to 4.0% in 1993 to 17.0% in 1997 and 26.5% in 2002.

The 2002 provincial split varied from a low of 12.4% in the Western Cape to a high of 36.5% in KwaZulu-Natal . The prevalence rates for the other provinces were 15.1% for Northern Cape, 15.16% Limpopo, 23.6% Eastern Cape, 26.2% North West, 28.6% in Mpumalanga, 28.8% Free State and 31.6% in Gauteng. Helmo Preuss

Aids: The hidden killer (S.A)

Cape Town - between 17 and 23% of SA National Defence Force members may be infected with HIV/Aids, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Tuesday.

Five million South Africans are HIV positive out of a total population of forty-six million, giving a prevalence rate of 11 %. Compared with previous models, the impact of HIV/AIDS has been revised downwards with improved epidemiological data.( News 24.com)

the number of people on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy in developing and transitional countries increased dramatically from 440 000 to an estimated 700 000. This figure represents about 12% of the approximately 5.8 million people currently needing treatment in developing and transitional countries and includes people receiving ARV therapy supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the United States Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the World Bank and other partners.

In sub-Saharan Africa , the number of people on treatment doubled from 150 000 to 310 000 in just six months. In Botswana , Kenya , South Africa , Uganda and Zambia the number of people receiving treatment increased by more than 10 000 in each country. Botswana , Namibia and Uganda now have an estimated ARV therapy coverage that exceeds one quarter of all people needing treatment, and 13 countries in the region have exceeded 10% coverage. This region now has well over 700 sites that can deliver ARV therapy.

In East, South and South-East Asia , 100 000 people were on treatment by the end of 2004, twice the number reported six months previously. Thailand is leading the way, expanding treatment access to all districts with more than 900 ARV therapy facilities and starting more than 3000 people on treatment every month.

In Latin America and the Caribbean , access to ARV therapy continued to improve. Brazil has led the way by providing access to ARV therapy for its entire population, but nine more countries also have estimated coverage rates exceeding 50%. Progress in Eastern Europe , Central Asia , North Africa and the Middle East has generally been much slower.( World Health Organization) And UNIAIDS.

Africa Fact Sheet
UNAIDS Epidemic Update December 2004

Sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10% of the world’s population, but is home to more than 60% of all people living with HIV—some 25.4 million. In 2004, an estimated 3.1 million people in the region became newly infected, while 2.3 million died of AIDS.

Among young people aged 15–24 years, an estimated 6.9% of women and 2.2% of men were living with HIV at the end of 2004.

Adult HIV prevalence has been roughly stable in recent years. But stabilization does not necessarily mean the epidemic is slowing. On the contrary, it can disguise the worst phases of an epidemic—when roughly equally large numbers of people are being newly infected with HIV and are dying of AIDS.

Across the region, women are disproportionately affected by HIV.

 Women and girls make up almost 57% of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa . Overall, three quarters of all women with HIV worldwide live in this region.

On average, there are 13 women living with HIV for every 10 infected men and the gap continues to grow. In most countries, women are being infected with HIV at earlier ages than men.

Young women (aged 15-24) are bearing the brunt of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa .

Recent population-based studies suggest that there are on average 36 young women living with HIV, for every 10 young men.

Southern Africa remains the worst affected sub region in the world with South Africa having the highest number of people living with HIV in the world. An estimated 5.3 million people were living with HIV end -2003 in South Africa — 2.9 million of them women. Unfortunately, there is no sign yet of a decline in the epidemic.

Life expectancy at birth has dropped below 40 years in nine African countries— Botswana , Central African Republic , Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Rwanda , Swaziland , Zambia and Zimbabwe . All are severely affected by AIDS.

 In Zimbabwe , life expectancy at birth was 34 years in 2003, compared with 52 years in 1990.

Some countries in East Africa , such as Ethiopia , Kenya and Uganda , show signs of declines in HIV infection levels. The steepest drop has been in Uganda , where national prevalence fell from 13% in the early 1990s to 4.1% b by end-2003.

However, it is much too early to claim that these recent declines herald a definitive reversal in these countries’ epidemics and, furthermore, the need for treatment, care and support will continue to increase for years to come.

Although varying in scale and intensity, the epidemics in West Africa appear to have stabilized in most countries. Overall, HIV prevalence is lowest in the Sahel countries and highest in Burkina Faso , Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria —the latter.

Middle East and North Africa:
UNAIDS Epidemic Update 2004    

HIV continues to increase its presence in the Middle East and North Africa .

 Nearly 92 000 people became newly infected with HIV in 2004. HIV is being transmitted along diverse paths in this region, including paid sex, sex between men and injecting drug use, and there exists significant scope for further expansion of the epidemic.

The total number of people currently living with HIV in the region is 540 000. In 2004, some 250 000 women were living with the virus. AIDS killed an estimated 28 000 people in 2004.

In most Middle East and North African countries, the epidemics are still in their early stages—which boosts the chances that effective prevention efforts can limit the further spread of the virus.

Wracked by civil war and humanitarian crises, Sudan remains the region’s worst-affected country, with its epidemic concentrated largely in the south.

Latest estimates show that more than 2% of the adult population were living with HIV at the end of 2003—some 400 000 people, which amounts to more than 80% of all people with HIV in this region.

Libya ’s epidemic has been growing dramatically, with almost 90% of the officially reported 5160 HIV infections among Libyans (at end-2002) having occurred in 2000–2002 alone. The vast majority—over 90%—of reported HIV cases are attributed to injecting drug use.

Risk behaviour among injecting drug users in the Egyptian capital, Cairo , is high and there is ample opportunity for HIV to spread from drug injectors to their sexual partners.

More than half (55%) said they had injected with non-sterile injecting equipment in the previous month. Among the three quarters of the users who were sexually active, almost two thirds had never used a condom.

HIV infections in Algeria , Bahrain , Kuwait and Oman have also been attributed to injecting drug use.

In Iran , about 15% of all HIV infections since the start of the epidemic were reported in 2003 alone. While this increase partly reflects expanded surveillance, it almost certainly mirrors a recent escalation driven primarily by injecting drug use.

According to one study, around half of injecting-drug users in Iran were married and one third of the surveyed users reported extra-marital sex, pointing to the potential for further transmission. Such a secondary wave of infections would probably put sex workers (and their other clients) at risk too.

As elsewhere in the region, sex workers in Iran appear to be poorly equipped to avert HIV infections. One study among sex workers in the Iranian city of Kermanshah , found that almost all the sex workers knew about condoms, but only 50% had ever used one. Both sex workers and clients in Iran have cited high condom prices as the main reason for not using them.

Women and AIDS – A Growing Challenge:
UNAIDS Epidemic Update

Early in the epidemic, men vastly outnumbered women among people infected with HIV. In 1998, women made up 41% of adults living with HIV. Today, nearly 50% of adults living with HIV globally are women – close to 60% in sub-Saharan Africa .

Women are more physically susceptible to HIV infection than men and male-to-female transmission during sex is about twice as likely to occur as female-to-male ones.

Key facts:

Since 2002, the number of women living with HIV has increased in every region. East Asia experienced the sharpest increase with 56% in two years, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48%.

Millions of young people are becoming sexually active each day with no access to prevention services. In sub -Saharan Africa, 76% of young people aged 15-24 living with HIV are female; young women are about three times more vulnerable to HIV infection than their male counterparts.

In Russia, which has the biggest epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Russian Federal AIDS Center found that in 2003, 38% of people living with HIV were women, compared to 24% in 2001.

In the United States, AIDS disproportionately affects African American and Hispanic women, with AIDS ranked among the top three causes of death for African American women aged 35-44 years (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Increasing vulnerability:

In many parts of the world, marriage and long-term monogamous relationships do not protect women from HIV.

In a study in Zambia , for example, only 11% of women believed that they had the right to ask their husbands to use a condom -- even if he had proven himself to be unfaithful and was HIV-positive.

Many women and girls find themselves using sex as a commodity in exchange for goods, services, money, accommodation, or other basic necessities – often with older men. This « transactional sex » is common in many countries in Asia , the Caribbean , and sub-Saharan Africa.

For many girls, violence or coercion marks their first experience of sex.

According to surveys, 24% of young women in rural Peru said their first sex had been forced.
"The epidemic has gained a firm foothold and shows little sign of weakening. The epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, in other
words, remains rampant. How long it will stay like this will depend on the vigour, scale and effectiveness of prevention,
treatment and care programs. Urgent and dramatic headway is required on all these fronts, and in unison. Anything less will spell failure. " UNAIDS

Statistics collated by Doctors for Life International during   December 2004 

The statistics are striking. 39.4 million people are estimated to be living with it, 20 million people have already died from it.

And in some African countries, as much as 24 percent of the population has been infected with it.(Tuftsdaily.com)

The latest statistics on the world epidemic of AIDS & HIV were published by UNAIDS/WHO in December 2004.

The report gives the latest AIDS and HIV statistics for the whole world and for regions.

World estimates of the HIV & AIDS epidemics at the end of 2004

Total number of AIDS deaths between 1981 and the end of 2003: 20 million.

Number of children orphaned by AIDS living in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2003: 12 million.

By December 2004 women accounted for 47% of all people living with HIV worldwide, and for 57% in sub-Saharan Africa .

In 2003, young people (15-24 years old) accounted for half of all new HIV infections worldwide, more than 6,000 became infected with HIV every day.

An estimated five million people in low and middle income countries do not have the AIDS drugs which could save their lives.

Regional statistics for HIV & AIDS end of 2004

During 2004 around five million adults and children became infected with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the virus that causes AIDS.

By the end of the year, an estimated 39.4 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS.

The year also saw more than three million deaths from AIDS, despite the availability of HIV antiretroviral therapy which reduced the number of deaths in high income countries.

Notes:

Adults in this report are defined as men and women aged 15-49.

This age range captures those in their most sexually active years.

While the risk of HIV infection continues beyond the age of 50, the vast majority of people with substantial risk behaviour are likely to have become infected by this age.

Since population structures differ greatly from one country to another, especially for children and the upper adult ages, the restriction of 'adults' to 15-49 has the advantage of making different populations more comparable.

Children orphaned by AIDS are those children under 18 who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

All the statistics on this page needed to be interpreted with caution because they are estimates.( Avert.org)

100 million HIV infections expected by 2004

HIV / AIDS kills more than any other infectious disease

Estimated alive with AIDS: 7.7 million

45 million men, women and children alive with HIV

40 million AIDS deaths

2% of global population 15-45 years carries HIV

More than 90% with HIV are in the poorest nations

20 million children under 15 lost mothers to AIDS

3 million children infected from their mothers by July 1996 (85% of total in sub-Saharan Africa)

In 1995 1,400 children were born with HIV every day

Global impact will be equivalent to the entire economy of India by 2000

Half of all infections are in people under 25 years old.

Aids statistics
01/12/2004 10:22   - (SA)  

Cape Town - The following maps and graph provided by UNAids.org represent:

·  the estimated number of adults and children newly infected with HIV during 2004
·  adults and children estimated to be living with HIV as of end 2004
·  the estimated adult and child deaths from Aids during 2004
·  the number of women and men living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa 1985-2004.

Estimated number of adults and children newly infected with HIV during 2004

Total: 4.9 (4.3-6.4) million

Adults and children estimated to be living with HIV as of end 2004

Total: 39.4 (35.9-44.3) million

Estimated adult and child deaths from Aids during 2004

Total: 3.1 (2.8-3.5) million

Number of women and men living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa 1985-2004

Source: All maps and graphs supplied by UNAids

HBC DEPARTMENT