The history of HIV and AIDS

The history of HIV and AIDS is a short one. As recently as the 1970s, no one was aware of this deadly illness. , Since then the global HIV/AIDS epidemic has become one of the greatest threats to human health and development. At the same time, much has been learnt about the science of HIV and AIDS, as well as how to prevent and treat the disease.

There is still no cure for HIV but HIV treatment has improved enormously since the mid-1990s. HIV-

HIV treatment at Shwedagon pagoda

Despite Myanmar’s progress in the AIDS response, HIV treatment is still largely available only in big cities. In the country’s capital of Yangon, some monks have opened up their monastery to people living with HIV who come to the city to access HIV treatment.

Shwedagon pagoda is one of the holiest structures in Myanmar, where religion has a big influence on everyday life. Religious groups can play an important role in stemming the spread of HIV.

Facilities with HIV testing and counselling

The proportion of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries who received an HIV test reached 35%, up from 26% in 2009 and 8% in 2005 —progress, but still a low figure, on the path towards the UNGASS goal of virtually eliminating the mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. In 22 priority countries with the greatest number of pregnant women living with HIV, the percentage receiving HIV testing and counselling varied greatly—from more than 95% in South Africa and Botswana to 11% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 7% in Chad.

While steady progress is being made in scaling up access to HIV services for people with tuberculosis (TB), the percentage of people with TB who received an HIV test in 2010 remained low, at 34%. Progress in scaling up TB services for people living with HIV is also very slow.

Data on the size of the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Number of deaths due to AIDS by country

Since the beginning of the epidemic, almost 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of AIDS. Globally, 34.0 million [31.4–35.9 million] people were living with HIV at the end of 2011. An estimated 0.8% of adults aged 15-49 years worldwide are living with HIV, although the burden of the epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. Sub-Saharan Africa remains most severely affected, with nearly 1 in every 20 adults (4.9%) living with HIV and accounting for 69% of the people living with HIV worldwide.

AIDS Is on the Rise Worldwide, U.N. Finds by LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

The AIDS pandemic is growing in all areas of the world, with worrisome signs of resurgence in some countries that were trumpeted as successes in combating the disease, the United Nations said yesterday.

At the same time, the prevalence of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, United Nations officials said.

AIDS, at 25, Offers No Easy Answers by ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.

Instinctively, the first thing we want to know about a disease is whether it is going to kill us. As the Talmud says, pretty much all the rest is commentary. Twenty-five years ago, this was the only question about AIDS we could answer with any certainty; how disorienting it is that now, vast quantities of commentary later, it is the only question we really cannot answer well at all.