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More than 85 million people have become infected already with the virus causing AIDS. In many countries the spead of HIV is out of control (see graphs below). We are in a race against time. Many communities in Africa have been devastated yet the greatest impact is still to come from an illness which can take more than a decade to develop. We are seeing rapid spread now in India, Russia, China and many other places.

It is hard for many people in Western countries to imagine what it is like knowing that maybe a third of all parents of school children in your city are going to die soon of AIDS, a third of your office team, a third of your church congregation even - HIV survives finding faith, baring a miracle.

The AIDS crisis has deepened despite efforts over the last 15 years. We need national programmes in hard-hit areas on a scale never seen before, encouraged by success in containing spread where government, media, community and churches as well as other faith-based organisations, have worked together.

AIDS CAN BE BEATEN BUT WE NEED TO ACT NOW

AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. HIV is transmitted mainly through sex, injecting with shared needles, and from mother to child.

Sadly, many babies that escaped infection in the womb, have become infected through breast-feeding.

Most women in African nations who are infected with HIV have been celibate before marriage and faithful since, but got infected by their husbands. Being female, poor and married can place someone at very high risk of infection.

Grief and pain for those left behind

Hundreds of millions of people have never heard of AIDS or are ignorant about how it spreads. In rural parts of India, most women don't know that sexual relationsips can spread illnesses.

HIV does not kill directly, but it destroys the body's natural defences against disease. AIDS develops when the body succumbs to a secondary infection, often pneumonia or tuberculosis. Death may follow soon afterwards unless these infections are successfully treated.

There are many drugs which can prolong life but they have many side-effects and are still too expensive for most people with AIDS who live in the poorest nations. New programmes to provide low-cost or zero cost treatment will not reach all areas, and the treatment requires medical tests every two weeks. Resistance to the medicine is common, and the pills have to be taken every day for life. Treatment of pregnant women makes it unlikely that her child will be infected at birth. There is no vaccine against HIV.

AIDS Epidemic Spreading Fast
but Uganda and other nations see rates fall

grieving man

Comment on reports of HIV man who may have "cured" himself
Press reports (13th November 2005) about man in London who tested positve for HIV and then (possibly) eliminated HIV from his body

UNAIDS says the AIDS epidemic is spreading twice as fast as five years ago. 3 million people died in 2003 and a further 5 million were infected. Over 45 million are alive with HIV and another 43 million have already perished. 3 million children are alive with HIV, a number increasing by almost a million a year. These are still early days in a global pandemic that started relatively recently.

The need has never been more urgent to save lives. India could see more HIV cases over the next 15 years than there have been in the entire world until now. The African AIDS disaster is repeating itself on a vast and tragic scale in Asia, yet with few signs of the kind of multi-level government responses we saw in places like Uganda 15 years ago.

Project guidelines and best practice.

The following UNAIDS graphs show the alarming way that HIV is spreading

HIV infection rates Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Cameroon
1992-2002 showing rapid spread and slowing of epidemic in
Cameroon and Namibia (warning, can change rapidly)

Falling HIV incidence in Kigali (Rwanda), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
and Kampala (Uganda) among pregnant women 1985-2002
showing evidence of response to AIDS prevention efforts

AIDS crisis unfolds in Estonia (top line), Russia, Ukraine and
neighbouring countries - cases per thousand. Russia is now
fastest rate of increaseof HIV infection in the world

Rapid HIV spread in Guangxi province of China 1995-2000
accelerated by unsafe medical practices. Spread in China
as a nation is uncertain, but likely to be rapid

Just when you thought we were winning... huge rise in HIV
prevalence rates among injecting drug users in Ho Chi Minh,
Vietnam, despite falls from 42% to 28% from 1995-1998. If people
relax and stop worrying about infection, you can see all
the previous prevention work undermined in a couple of years.

"AIDS and You" 2002 edition - book intro to AIDS by Dr Patrick Dixon

'The Truth about AIDS', Dr Patrick Dixon's text-book - 2002 edition

Both books available at no cost in bulk for free distribution for organisations operating in the poorest nations - available in many languages

Resources listed on these pages may be useful in part or in whole and are provided by other organisations. ACET International Alliance takes no responsibility for content.

Questions people ask and loads of answers

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