E-drug: More thoughts on the HIV & needles controversy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[More thoughts on the HIV & needles controversy. Copied as fair use.
HH]
Scientists Say Sex is the Main Source of HIV in Africa.
Reuters Health (17.04.03)
Although recent theories have speculated that the AIDS epidemic in
some African countries arose from unsafe medical practices,
scientists said Wednesday that the pattern of AIDS matches more
closely with one primarily spread by unprotected sex.
In the April 17th issue of Nature (2003;422:679), UK investigators
compared the changing HIV infection rate in sub-Saharan African
countries to that of hepatitis C, which is spread mainly through
contact with infected blood. Worldwide, more people are infected with
hepatitis C than HIV. However, sub-Saharan African countries - unlike
other nations - have a higher rate of HIV than hepatitis C. The
authors note that a needle tainted with hepatitis C-infected blood is
six times more likely to infect a person than is a needle tainted with
HIV. And given that HIV is more common than hepatitis C in
sub-Saharan Africa, a high prevalence of HIV must be attributed to
factors other than the use of unsterile needles or tainted blood
products, they concluded.
The researchers acknowledge that many Africans may have been
infected with HIV as a result of unsafe medical practices, however it
"is not the dominant contributor to the African HIV epidemic." "I think
it's because of unsafe sex. This is clearly the key factor, although
there are clearly a variety of socioeconomic factors which impact on
this," said study author Dr. Edward C. Holmes of the University of
Oxford. As a result, Holmes and colleagues said efforts aimed at
preventing new infections should focus on safe sex messages.
A report from an international team of eight experts recently
challenged the belief - widely held by most scientists - that
heterosexual sex is the cause of HIV in 90 percent of new cases in
adults in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers claimed that only
one-third of all adult cases in the region could be attributed to unsafe
sex. Rather, a more significant factor of transmission rates may have
been unsafe medical practices. They noted that HIV is more easily
transmitted though unsafe injections and infected blood transfusions
than through heterosexual sex.
Holmes and his team see quite a different picture by comparing rates
of HIV and hepatitis C in the region. The authors noted that South
Africa has the highest number of Africans with HIV, where the
incidence of HIV increased from less than 1 percent in 1990 to almost
25 percent in 2000. They point out that the rate of hepatitis C in South
Africa has remained steady and relatively low over the same time
period. These divergent trends suggest "that current levels of HIV
prevalence are not primarily the result of using unsterile medical
equipment or contaminated blood products."
More at www.nature.com
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug