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We have all been living in a new epidemic for a long time. The sense of danger has dulled, HIV infection has ceased to be such a rarity, medicine has managed to radically improve the quality and life expectancy of people who have been diagnosed with the virus, and in many cases to prevent the development of the disease. Now the main task is to change the behavior of people and the attitude in society towards this disease, says doctor Yevgeny Voronin.
About viruses
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes a chronic, long-term infectious disease that occurs only in humans. HIV can be contracted by ingesting blood, semen, vaginal secretions, or breast milk from a person living with HIV. There are simply no other ways of infection, because this virus is unstable in the external environment. It dies in dry blood, in dried semen or breast milk, does not withstand heating and treatment with any disinfectant, including alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine.
It is impossible to determine by appearance whether a person is infected with HIV or not: for a long time after infection (up to several years), a person may not show any symptoms of the disease, but he can transmit the virus to others. You can find out your HIV status only by passing an HIV test (blood or saliva is used for analysis).
HIV destroys the human immune system gradually. Over time, if left untreated (usually 5 to 10 years after infection), they develop a condition called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Many factors influence the rate of development of AIDS: general health, nutrition, physical and emotional state, drug use, alcohol and tobacco use. AIDS manifests differently in different people. Some have severe symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, while others develop cancer and skin infections.
Today, thanks to special medicines, more and more people live with HIV for many years without reaching the stage of AIDS.
History of the epidemic
When the virus was still insufficiently studied, there were various versions about its origin, including very bold ones. For example, some argued that HIV is a bacteriological weapon developed by scientists for military purposes. Others have argued that HIV is of unearthly origin and introduced by aliens. Today, most scientists believe that HIV originated from simian immunodeficiency viruses. Indigenous peoples of West Africa could become infected from monkeys when they hunted them and used their meat for food. Once in the human body, the virus changed (mutated) and began to cause a state of immunodeficiency in people. This happened around the 1930s; only fifty years later in the USA the first cases of unusual development of some infectious and oncological diseases were noted. All of them proceeded against the background of a strong depletion of the immune system and led to the death of the sick. Soon, scientists Luc Montagnier (France) and Robert Gallo (USA) discovered a virus that causes a state of immunodeficiency in humans. Later, this virus became known as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
In 1987, the first case of HIV infection was detected in a citizen of the USSR, who became infected during a business trip abroad. In the republics of the USSR, they began to create special medical institutions — centers for the prevention and control of AIDS. In 1988, in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista, the first mass infection of children with HIV occurred as a result of medical negligence (non-sterile syringes).
In the 1990s and early 2000s, in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries, the HIV epidemic rapidly spread against the backdrop of a sharp increase in injecting drug use. Today, more and more people become infected with HIV through sexual contact.
- «I live with HIV»
No more people dying from AIDS?
To maintain the normal functioning of the immune system, people with HIV are prescribed special drugs — antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that suppress the reproduction of the virus in the body. And sometimes it is enough to take one tablet once a day, and not many tablets three times a day, as before.
The timely initiation of ARV therapy can significantly restore immunity and significantly slow down the development of HIV infection, thereby prolonging a person’s full life for many years.
But, unfortunately, people continue to die from AIDS, not only when they cannot receive full treatment, but also when they start it too late, do not adhere to their medication regimen, interrupt treatment or refuse it, believing claims that it is not HIV, And the antiviral drugs themselves cause AIDS.
By trusting such statements by so-called HIV dissidents who deny the scientifically established nature of this disease, people can endanger not only their own lives, but also the lives of their (future) children.
Stop the transmission of the virus!
It is obvious that completely stopping the spread of the virus is an almost unattainable goal: it is simply impossible to eliminate all accidents and errors. But it is already possible to radically reduce the number of new cases and reduce the spread of the virus.
The main thing in this business is informing about the ways of transmission of infection and how you can protect yourself. Many, knowing full well about the existence of HIV, do not realize that at risk are not only drug users who use non-sterile syringes, and not only those who enter into numerous unprotected sexual contacts with different partners. The person who became the source of the virus may not know about his condition or deliberately withhold this information: in the latter case, his actions are a crime. “One time” is enough for infection, and it can happen to anyone, even a completely prosperous person, if he (a) does not overcome the frivolous attitude to his own safety in time: “I am sure that this will not happen to me.”
There is no medical vaccine for HIV yet. But education and upbringing provide knowledge, form life attitudes and values and skills of safe and responsible behavior that can protect against the virus. In countries where high-quality and comprehensive sexuality education programs are in place in schools, adolescents tend to start having sex later and use contraception more frequently. This means that their risk of infection is much lower.
The main task is the fight against discrimination
Thirty years ago, when HIV was just beginning to be studied and people were dying of AIDS, the image of a terrible disease that only affected the marginalized entered the mass consciousness. People’s fear of contracting an «indecent» and incurable virus and their lack of knowledge about its nature turned into a prejudiced attitude for those directly affected by HIV, sometimes unjustifiably harsh rejection and violation of their rights.
Often, people living with HIV are denied employment if their diagnosis is noted on their medical records, or lose their jobs when employees find out about their status. Many, fearing discrimination, avoid going to clinics and hospitals, although it is clear that regular medical supervision is especially important for them. Violation of confidentiality is the reason that children are forced to leave schools and kindergartens.
Despite the fact that all ways of transmission of the virus are well understood, there are always «activists» who insist on the isolation of HIV-positive children and adults.
This public attitude reinforces the so-called “self-stigmatization” of people living with HIV. They deliberately limit their social ties, decide not to enter into a relationship or marriage, not to have children because of their HIV-positive status. An HIV-positive woman says: “People living with HIV very often have a high level of internal stigma: we feel that we should not have sex, we should not have children.” And this despite the fact that modern drugs can suppress the level of the virus in the blood to an undetectable level, so that an HIV-positive person can be a safe sexual partner and have healthy children!
Even knowing that any everyday contacts with HIV-positive people (talking, shaking hands, eating together, sharing a pool) are absolutely safe, many continue to feel fear and dislike. Overcoming prejudices is a very long and difficult process, and here the personal example of famous people can help. In the mid-80s, people were afraid to touch an HIV-infected child. The situation changed dramatically thanks to Princess Diana. During a visit to a hospital in Harlem, she communicated with abandoned children who had HIV and AIDS: hugged them, took them in her arms. Photos of Lady Dee with little patients were published in dozens of newspapers. After that, all the children were sorted into families.
Fortunately, attitudes towards HIV-positive children are gradually changing. Those who were abandoned by their parents are more often than before taken into families: after all, they differ from other children only in that they have to take medicine once a day, which is paid by the state.
We all need to take one more step: to ensure that HIV-positive people are no longer afraid of others and ashamed of themselves. Yes, they, like any chronically ill, will have to control their condition all their lives, but this life may well be long and happy.
- «Red Ribbon» Psychologies