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Liisa Leeve
Journalism Student (Helsinki, Finland)

I'm a journalism student from Helsinki Finland. My special interest in this competition is to discuss issues related to the empowerment of women.

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Young people taking control over HIV/AIDS

Published 14th July 2010 - 15 comments - 1355 views -

It's not often we get good news from the HIV/AIDS front with the desease still spreading in developing and developed countries alike. This week on Tuesday, however, the UN programme on HIV/AIDS called UNAIDS published a report in which they stated that popularisation of safe sex practices among young people has resulted in a 25% decrease in HIV prevalence in the most affected countries in the world.

There are currently 33.4 million people living with HIV in the world and of those 22.4 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the good news there is a desperate need of access to antiretroviral therapy in the poorest areas of the world.

UNAID released their OUTLOOK 2010 report on Tuesday. It's well worth looking into, as it is very well illustrated with graphics and visuals and it contains very interesting voices and oppinions. It's a very good looking report! Here is a link to it.

Photo by United Nations Photo courtecy of Flickr Creative Commons

Category: Health | Tags:


Comments

  • Carmen Paun on 14th July 2010:

    There is also the HIV/ AIDS international conference taking place in Vienna these days for those that are interested on the topic: http://www.aids2010.org/Default.aspx?pageId=208

  • Lara Smallman on 14th July 2010:

    Thanks Liisa for sharing the information, and Carmen, thanks for the link, very interesting.

  • Andrea Arzaba on 14th July 2010:

    Thank you Liisa, I really hope next time the statistics will change for good.

  • Liisa Leeve on 14th July 2010:

    Thanks for your comments! As I was reading the report I found especially outrageous that 62 percent of HIV infected children are not getting the antiretroviral therapy they need. It’s estimated that eliminating HIV contraction in childbirth would cost 610 million USD per year. That’s not very much if you think about it.

  • Iwona Frydryszak on 14th July 2010:

    thanks. the visualisations are great. i like how the report was done. UN is really following trends smile great inspiration to read during weekend.

  • Hussam Hussein on 14th July 2010:

    Nice report! Thx

  • Iris Cecilia Gonzales on 15th July 2010:

    Liisa,

    This is encouraging. Thanks for this post. I agree with Andrea. Hope the statistics change for good.

  • Liisa Leeve on 15th July 2010:

    Hi guys! Thanks again for the comments!

    Iwona, I agree that the UN has really outdone themselves in creating a really up-to-date publication with this one. It really invites you to read it with its magazine-like look. Often reports are really dull and dry looking which makes them hard to take up and start reading.

    This is the kind of material all organisations should be producing to get people’s attention and to get them reading!

  • Luan Galani on 15th July 2010:

    Thanks for some information on this, Liisa. Regardind Africa, we have to bare in mind that HIV is connected to rape, a ruthless but powerful weapon. Things are so interconnected.

  • Hussam Hussein on 15th July 2010:

    Thanks Liisa and Luan for your contributions, as Luan said, HIV in Africa is really interconnected to many different issues, such as sexual violences..

  • Liisa Leeve on 18th July 2010:

    Hi Hussam and Luan! Do you have any links to any articles or statistics on the sexual violence in Africa you mention? Is it more prevalent than in other countries? I’d like to know more.

  • Hussam Hussein on 18th July 2010:

    Hi Liisa!
    Actually, I read some months ago a paper on this issue, but it was focused on South Africa, that as we know, it’s a particular case.
    The paper basically said that the results of an empirical analysis that links rising rates of HIV/AIDS in South Africa’s provinces to increasing incidents of rape and indecent assault in the provinces. The paper concludes that HIV/AIDS has been a contributing factor to the rise in indecent assaults (which includes assaults and rape of children age 0-12), while less of a factor in cases of rape of women over the age of 12.
    http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/3/0/0/pages253003/p253003-1.php

    I think that this is a very interesting issue, and in these days I’m spending in Geneva I will try to go deeper on this issue.

  • Luan Galani on 18th July 2010:

    Hi Liisa,

    Yes, I have some. It is a very important topic indeed.

    http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89802

    http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Child-raped-every-3-min-report-20090603

    http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/11/2008111201216476354.html

    http://www.theafricareport.com/archives2/in-the-know/3282303-no-safe-place-from-rape.html

  • Liisa Leeve on 19th July 2010:

    Thanks for the links Hussam and Luan! It’s all just incredibly awful. How can anyone change such a deep rooted culture of violence and deglect of the victims? As long as the perpetrators get away with it there’s no way of stopping it… Makes me so sad.

  • Luan Galani on 21st July 2010:

    Liisa,

    I do not have an answer to such question, but a new initiative caught my attention and it reminded me of you.

    The UN launched today a new UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention, which includes more than 15 world renowned leaders. They say that over 7,000 new HIV infections occur every day.  “Today, for every 2 persons starting treatment, 5 new infections occur”, said Professor Barré-Sinoussi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine for her role in the discovery of HIV.

    Check out: http://www.unaids.org/en/knowledgecentre/resources/presscentre/pressreleases/2010/20100721_pr_preventioncommission.asp

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