Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Prevention: daunting challenges aheadwith HIV in Chennai (Madras) – almost all of them married – showed that 88% hadhad sex with only one person in their lives. Few women reported any risk factorsother than sex.Ideals and behaviour can conflict even within the same individual. In a South Africanstudy, four men out of five said that people should stick to one faithful, regular partnerto avoid AIDS, but over half of the same men reported having had at least onecasual partner in the past year. Similar but smaller discrepancies were found amongwomen.Condom use: rising, but still not enoughBy far the commonest method of prevention mentioned spontaneously by people inmany studies is condom use. For example, in a study among miners in South Africain 1997, three-quarters mentioned condom use whereas only two-fifths mentionedmonogamy.Despite opposition from many quarters, condoms have been actively and successfullypromoted as part of HIV prevention strategies in many countries.Box 11. How well do condoms work?Obviously, people will not use condoms to protect themselves against HIV, othersexually transmitted infections or pregnancy unless they believe that condoms provideeffective protection. Huge misconceptions about the safety of condoms in manypopulations certainly contribute to the low levels of use among sexually activeyoungsters. In a large survey in central Kenya, nearly half of the young men who hadhad sex and over two-thirds of the young women had never used a condom. Amongthese young people, over 40% of the boys and 55% of the girls thought that HIVmight be able to pass through a condom, and roughly the same proportions believedcondoms could get stuck inside a woman’s body.Worryingly, misconceptions about condoms are not confined to the young. Over halfof the parents and guardians of the young people in the study thought that HIV couldpass through a condom, and only 48% said condoms were effective preventionagainst HIV. Misunderstandings about the effectiveness of condoms are reinforced bystatements from social leaders. For example, a religious authority in the area of centralKenya where the study was conducted was quoted in the country’s largest newspaperas saying that “the rampant use of condoms was to blame for the spread ofAIDS… despite condom use, the number of people infected with AIDS continued toincrease, an indication that they were not effective in the prevention of the disease”.The effectiveness of condoms in protecting against HIV and other sexually transmittedinfections is a scientific rather than a moral issue. And all the scientific evidencepoints in the same direction: correct and consistent use of condoms of good quality–––>59
Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic – June 2000vastly reduces the likelihood of HIV transmission. Among discordant couples (coupleswhere just one partner is infected), those who always use condoms for sex havelittle or no risk of the virus passing to the uninfected partner compared with coupleswho use condoms sporadically or not at all.There is wide variation in condom use around the world, and even within communities.On the whole, though, more men report using condoms than women, and bothsexes are far more likely to use condoms for sex with casual partners than with aspouse or regular partner (see page 80).Studies show that young people are more likely than their elders to use condoms toprotect themselves and their partners against HIV infection. Young people in all culturesand corners of the globe have proved themselves ready and willing to adoptbehaviours and attitudes that promise to stem the rampage of AIDS. This bodes wellfor the future, since it is probably easier to maintain established behaviours over timethan to change habits once they have been formed. Indeed, many young people arebeginning to insist on safe sex even at the start of their sexual lives.In Latin America, Brazil has chalked up impressive results in encouraging condomuse for first intercourse (see page 16). So has Mexico, where a study among highschooland university students found that 42% of young men and 36% of youngwomen reported having used a condom the first time they had sex. Increases in condomuse have also been recorded on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, followingan active HIV prevention and condom promotion campaign conducted between1991 and 1997. Among people who had had sex with more than one partner overthe past year, condom use rose from 35% in 1991 (before the campaign) to 55% in1994 and to 71% in 1997.Figure 22 shows that, in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, youngpeople were more likely than older people to use condoms with casual partners.In most western European countries, more than 60% of young people currentlyreport that they used a condom the first time they had sex. In Switzerland (see Figure23), almost 80% of people aged 17–30, many of whom are unmarried, say they consistentlyuse condoms with casual partners (up from less than 20% a decade ago).In sub-Saharan Africa, condom use has increased considerably over time. InUganda, the percentage of teenage girls who had ever used a condom tripledbetween 1994 and 1997, and more teenage girls reported condom use than anyother age group, indicating that the acceptability of condoms is growing more rapidlyamong young people than among older people. Lifetime condom use among themen who have sex with these women also rose, more than doubling in all age groupsbetween 1994 and 1997.However, the rates remain very low in some areas. A study in western Kenya foundthat 63% of unmarried men and women who had had sex in the past year never60
Page 2 and 3:
UNAIDS/00.13E (English original, Ju
Page 4 and 5:
Report on the global HIV/AIDS epide
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11: AIDS in a new millennium: a grim pi
Page 22 and 23: Waking up to devastationWaking up t
Page 24 and 25: Waking up to devastationgreatly ove
Page 26 and 27: Waking up to devastationThere is no
Page 28 and 29: Waking up to devastationHousehold i
Page 30 and 31: Waking up to devastationThe toll on
Page 32 and 33: Waking up to devastationfishing) wh
Page 34 and 35: Waking up to devastationally lose t
Page 36 and 37: Waking up to devastationvide counse
Page 38 and 39: What makes people vulnerable?What m
Page 40 and 41: What makes people vulnerable?“For
Page 42 and 43: What makes people vulnerable?Figure
Page 50 and 51: What makes people vulnerable?knowin
Page 52 and 53: What makes people vulnerable?becaus
Page 56 and 57: Prevention: daunting challenges ahe
Page 80 and 81: Opening new doors with counselling
Page 86 and 87: Care and support for people living
Page 108 and 109: National responses to the epidemic:
Page 110 and 111:
National responses to the epidemic:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Annex 1.How reliable are estimates
Page 120 and 121:
Annex 2. HIV/AIDS estimates and dat
Page 122 and 123:
Annex 2. HIV/AIDS estimates and dat
Page 124 and 125:
Table of country-specific HIV/AIDS
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
show all

Care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?