E-DRUG: AIDS In Africa Mostly Caused By Unprotected Sex, not injections
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[We had an earlier debate in E-drug on the role of unsafe injections in the
transmission of HIV. Here a follow-up study, putting the blame on
unprotected sex. Crossposted from AFRO-NETS with thanks. WB]
E-DRUG: AIDS In Africa Mostly Caused By Unprotected Sex, not injections
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http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040206/449_12859.asp
Friday, February 6, 2004
Experts from the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and the Word
Health Organization published an article in this week's edition
of The Lancet medical journal rejecting the theory that the pri-
mary means of HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa is unsafe
injections. Epidemiological evidence shows that the major mode
of HIV transmission in the region continues to be sexual trans-
mission.
However, the organizations agreed that the risk of unsafe injec-
tions should be reduced and suggested that data be improved for
the identification of such risks (UNAIDS Web site, Feb. 6).
According to the Washington Post, programs that teach safe sex
and the use of condoms were vindicated by the report's conclu-
sion that heterosexual sex accounts for as much as 90 percent of
adult HIV/AIDS cases in Africa. UNAIDS reported that approxi-
mately 26.6 million people in sub-Saharan African were living
with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003.
One year ago, David Gisselquist, a U.S.-based consultant, said
that according to his analysis, dirty needles caused as much as
40 percent of adult HIV/AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa (Wash-
ington Post, Feb. 6). While UNAIDS and the WHO did not dispute
the danger of unsafe injections, they felt that such an emphasis
would minimize the significance of sexual transmission and pos-
sibly have a negative effect on efforts to control the transmis-
sion of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, the article in The Lancet reported that sexual behav-
ior statistics were most likely underestimated in sub-Saharan
Africa, with much behavior going unreported. In one study, 23
percent of 980 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24 who
said they never had sex were infected with HIV, yet 16 percent
of 958 among this group were also pregnant.
In South Africa, a country that has the most highly developed
health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa and a blood-
transfusion system on par with developed countries, the HIV/AIDS
epidemic is rampant. This further disproves Gisselquist's theory
that unsafe injections are the primary mode of HIV transmission,
the authors said (The Lancet, Feb. 7).
--
Dr Rana Jawad Asghar
Program Manager Child Survival, Mozambique
Provincial Coordinator Sofala Province, Mozambique
Health Alliance International, Seattle, WA, USA
http://depts.washington.edu/haiuw/
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
http://www.saphf.org
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu
http://www.DrJawad.com
--
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