AIDS: a Thirty Years' War of Hopes
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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June 5, 1981 American epidemiologists reported a strange case with five young gays in Los Angeles: they all seemed healthy, but suddenly fell ill with pneumonia. Two died.
Later it was found out that men became victims of a new virus, which today took away more lives than it died on the fronts of the Second World War. The disease, which was initially called gay-plague, penetrated into all layers of society.
"AIDS has changed the world, without a doubt," said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, the organizer of a major international forum dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the first diagnosis (the conference will be held in New York on June 8-10). "A new social contract was concluded, which has never been."
The cause of the disease was identified in 1983 by French doctors. They isolated a pathogenic organism that became known as the human immunodeficiency virus. It is transmitted through sperm, vaginal discharge, breast milk and blood. HIV captures key cells of the immune system, destroying them and simultaneously causing them to reproduce themselves.
For several years, the infection does not give symptoms, but during this time the immune system is so weak that the risk of getting tuberculosis, pneumonia and other ailments becomes extremely high.
The successes of the scientists gave hope that the vaccine will be found - after all, we managed to defeat smallpox and poliomyelitis. But the world is still waiting. The virus was surprisingly capable of mutations.
The first good news came in 1996: an effective medicine has finally been found. It lowers the level of HIV in the blood below detectable, but is not a panacea and has many side effects. Alas, this and the preparations that followed them were extremely expensive, only residents of rich countries could afford them.
At one time, US President George W. Bush and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates established the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Thanks to him, already five million people living in low- and middle-income countries have lengthened their lives. Unfortunately, this is a drop in the ocean. According to UNAIDS, 10 million people are currently waiting for the Foundation's help, and by 2015 (by the time the UN wants to reach "zero new infections, zero discrimination, zero deaths") there will be 13 million of them, which means another $ 6 billion. China and other rapidly developing states, these unhappy people can not be saved.
"We must stop the spread of the virus, otherwise there is no way out of the epidemic, no treatment is not enough," says Seth Berkeley, head of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Today, there are only two sufficiently effective methods of prevention. First, circumcision reduces the risk of contracting men by two-thirds. Secondly, taking antiretroviral drugs with a heterosexual couple prevents transmission of the virus between partners in 96% of cases. Vaginal and anal prophylactic gels are also being developed.
Finally, the UNAIDS statistics for 2009 are dry. Since 1981, more than 60 million people have been infected, almost half of whom have died from AIDS-related illnesses. In 2009, 1.8 million died, a quarter of them from tuberculosis.
More than two thirds of people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. The virus has 5% of the adult population of the continent.
In 2009, 2.6 million new cases of HIV infection were registered (in 1999 - 3.1 million). About 5.2 million people in low- and middle-income countries had access to antiretroviral therapy in 2009 (700,000 in 2004).
About 2.5 million people under the age of 15 have been infected. In 2009, 370,000 babies were born with HIV.
16.6 million young people under the age of 18 lost their parents as a result of AIDS.
The number of infected by region: Sub-Saharan Africa - 22.5 million, South and South-East Asia - 4.1 million, East Asia - 770 thousand, Central and South America - 1.4 million, North America - 1.5 million , Western and Central Europe - 820 thousand, Eastern Europe and Central Asia - 1.4 million, the Caribbean islands - 240 thousand, the Middle East and North Africa - 460 thousand, Oceania - 57 thousand.
