Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic – June 2000implementing needle-exchange and other prevention programmes has been consideredtoo high for such programmes to be started or maintained. As a result, thereare continuing high prevalence rates among injecting drug users in many highincomecountries. In Canada, nearly half of all new HIV infections occur in this group.In Spain, a recent study in Barcelona found a prevalence rate of 51% among injectingdrug users.Among gay men (see pages 65-70), the virus had spread widely before it was evenidentified and had established a firm grip on the population by the early 1980s. Withmassive early prevention campaigns targeted at gay communities, risk behaviourwas substantially reduced and the rate of new infection dropped significantly duringthe mid- and late 1980s. Recent information suggests, however, that the frequencyof risk behaviour may be increasing again in some communities. This and the effectsof therapies that keep infected people alive for longer have added up to slowly risingnumbers of people living with AIDS – an effect illustrated by data for gay men inSan Francisco in the USA, shown in Figure 6.Figure 6.Number of AIDS patients, AIDS deaths and patients onantiretroviral therapy among men who have sex with men(MSM), San Francisco, USA, 1980-19988000700060005000400030002000100001980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998MSM with AIDSAIDS deaths among MSMMSM taking antiretroviral drugsSource: San Francisco Department of Public Health (California), USA, 199920