HIV-positive people

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HIV-positive people, seropositive people or people who live with HIV [1] are people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus which if untreated may progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

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According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 38.4 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2021. That same year, some 1.5 million people became newly infected, and 650,000 died of AIDS-related causes, including 98,000 children. More than two-thirds of new HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa. [2] [3]

Testing and awareness

Infection with HIV is determined by an HIV test. As of 2021, 85% of all people living with HIV knew their status. [2]

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Amnesty International, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects and the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, have all condemned forced HIV testing actions as infringements on human rights and conflicting with proven public health measures that are successful in preventing HIV transmission. Sex workers in Malawi and Greece have been forced to undergo HIV testing and those who tested HIV-positive were criminalized. Stigmatizing measures discourage HIV-positive people from seeking voluntary and confidential counseling, testing and treatment. [4]

In Understanding Positive Women's Realities, Emma Bell and Luisa Orza argue HIV and sexual and reproductive health programmes and policies fail to recognize the complexity of HIV-positive people's lives and the context in which their sexual and reproductive choices are situated. Services do not prepare people for the consequences of a positive result of an HIV test. In many cases, service users are not taken into account and are forced to undergo an AIDS test without prior consent.

Gender and diagnosis

Diagnosis and gender play corresponding roles in recognizing the lives of those who live with HIV/AIDS. Women have not been diagnosed as early as men because their symptoms were not as obvious and doctors were not as likely to search for the disease in them as they are for men. This has also been based on the fact that far more men than women participated in clinical trials and women were therefore under-represented. Barbara Ogur has pointed out that the stigma of illegal drug use and multiple partners has also led to a lack of care and noticeability for women.

Among the women who were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the United States in 2009, 64% were Black, 18% were Hispanic, 15% were White, and 1% were Native Alaskan or Native American. Far more women contract the disease through heterosexual contact than men. [5]

Seronegative conversion

As of April 2020, there have been two reported cases of individuals being completely cured of this disease. The first case was Timothy Ray Brown, known as "The Berlin Patient", who was cured in 2007. [6] The second was Adam Castillejo, known as "The London Patient", who was cured in March 2020. Both of these patients were cured with stem cell transplants from the bone marrow of a donor who was immune to AIDS due to a genetic mutation. [7]

Among long-term nonprogressors, those who can maintain very low levels of viral loads, there have been reports of cases of individuals who have undetectable levels. Loreen Willenberg from USA was announced as the first such case in 2019 [8] [9] [10] and in 2021 another case from Argentina dubbed "the Esperanza patient". [11] [12] [13]

Organizations

Over the years of coping with the stigma and discrimination that accompany the diagnosis in most societies, a large number of support groups have been formed. In these groups, the term most often applied to people who are HIV-positive is "People Living With HIV/AIDS". This is often abbreviated as "PLWHA" or "PLHIV". Recently, "People Living Positively" has also been used. [14]

The largest and oldest of the worldwide networks of people infected with HIV is the Global Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), which has affiliate networks on every continent.

Relationship issues

For women who are HIV-positive and also in relationships, sexual expression and communication may become an issue of conflict. Their natural human desires of love, trust and intimacy might go unrecognized in programs such as ABC (Abstinence, Being faithful, Condom use) and as a member of the ICW (International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS) stated at the International AIDS conference in 2006 "we need to bring love back into the whole thing."[ citation needed ]

Each individual deals with an HIV diagnosis and their post-diagnosis sexual activity in different ways. Some individuals with HIV may decide to practice abstinence, while others may continue to have sex.[ citation needed ] An ICW member from Zimbabwe stated at a session in Toronto that her "relationship ended, and I spent the next four years celibate," while an ICW member in the United Kingdom found that she preferred the use of condoms and "in some ways [HIV] has made me more assertive sexually." It is vital to note that a positive diagnosis of the disease does not only affect illegal drug users or promiscuous individuals and that their basic sexual desires do not fade. [15]

According to Emma Bell and Luisa Orza in Understanding Positive Women's Realities, there is a need for service providers to understand women's relationships impact on their ability to access treatment and other health services. In many cases, HIV-positive realities include husbands or partners who have not or are unwilling to be tested for HIV forcing their HIV-positive spouse into giving them their ARV dose.

Stigma

Stigma attached with the disease makes it particularly harder for children living with HIV and their caregivers. Caregiving goes beyond the child-caregiver dynamic, and is intertwined with the local community and the healthcare and support system structures. [16]

Movies such as Philadelphia (1993), which followed the story of a gay, HIV-positive lawyer played by Tom Hanks, helped counteract stigma towards those living with HIV and made the topic less taboo. As HIV advocate Gary Bell claims: "I remember there was quite a buzz about it. I think the good news was that it got people talking about HIV in a way that they really weren't, because HIV was always that thing we really didn't want to talk about." [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS</span> United Nations organization

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS</span> Pandemic of HIV/AIDS

The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS had killed approximately 40.4 million people, and approximately 39 million people were infected with HIV globally. Of these, 29.8 million people (75%) are receiving antiretroviral treatment. There were about 630,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2022. The 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that the global incidence of HIV infection peaked in 1997 at 3.3 million per year. Global incidence fell rapidly from 1997 to 2005, to about 2.6 million per year. Incidence of HIV has continued to fall, decreasing by 23% from 2010 to 2020, with progress dominated by decreases in Eastern Africa and Southern Africa. As of 2023, there are about 1.3 million new infections of HIV per year globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in India</span>

HIV/AIDS in India is an epidemic. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimated that 3.14 million people lived with HIV/AIDS in India in 2023. Despite being home to the world's third-largest population of persons with HIV/AIDS, the AIDS prevalence rate in India is lower than that of many other countries. In 2016, India's AIDS prevalence rate stood at approximately 0.30%—the 80th highest in the world. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is via a combination of antiretroviral drugs and education programs to help people avoid infection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS</span> Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. It is a preventable disease. It can be managed with treatment and become a manageable chronic health condition. While there is no cure or vaccine for HIV, antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease and enable people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it. Effective treatment for HIV-positive people involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. Without treatment it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in Asia</span>

In 2008, 4.7 million people in Asia were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Asia's epidemic peaked in the mid-1990s, and annual HIV incidence has declined since then by more than half. Regionally, the epidemic has remained somewhat stable since 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in Europe</span>

In Western Europe, the routes of transmission of HIV are diverse, including paid sex, sex between men, intravenous drugs, mother to child transmission, and heterosexual sex. However, many new infections in this region occur through contact with HIV-infected individuals from other regions. In some areas of Europe, such as the Baltic countries, the most common route of HIV transmission is through injecting drug use and heterosexual sex, including paid sex.

Kenya has a severe, generalized HIV epidemic, but in recent years, the country has experienced a notable decline in HIV prevalence, attributed in part to significant behavioral change and increased access to ARV. Adult HIV prevalence is estimated to have fallen from 10 percent in the late 1990s to about 4.8 percent in 2017. Women face considerably higher risk of HIV infection than men but have longer life expectancies than men when on ART. The 7th edition of AIDS in Kenya reports an HIV prevalence rate of eight percent in adult women and four percent in adult men. Populations in Kenya that are especially at risk include injecting drug users and people in prostitution, whose prevalence rates are estimated at 53 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Men who have sex with men (MSM) are also at risk at a prevalence of 18.2%. Other groups also include discordant couples however successful ARV-treatment will prevent transmission. Other groups at risk are prison communities, uniformed forces, and truck drivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in Lesotho</span>

HIV/AIDS in Lesotho constitutes a very serious threat to Basotho and to Lesotho's economic development. Since its initial detection in 1986, HIV/AIDS has spread at alarming rates in Lesotho. In 2000, King Letsie III declared HIV/AIDS a natural disaster. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2016, Lesotho's adult prevalence rate of 25% is the second highest in the world, following Eswatini.

HIV/AIDS in Eswatini was first reported in 1986 but has since reached epidemic proportions. As of 2016, Eswatini had the highest prevalence of HIV among adults aged 15 to 49 in the world (27.2%).

HIV/AIDS in Jordan is characterized by a low prevalence rate compared to other regions, but the situation remains a concern due to potential for increase and the social and economic consequences that could result. As of 2007, the UNAIDS estimated that there were approximately 380 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Jordan. Despite the relatively low numbers, the country faces challenges in addressing the epidemic, including inadequate surveillance systems, limited adoption of preventive practices, and persistent stigma and discrimination against PLWHA.

HIV/AIDS in Bolivia has a less than 1 percent prevalence of Bolivia's adult population estimated to be HIV-positive. Bolivia has one of the lowest HIV prevalence rates in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

HIV/AIDS in Jamaica has a 1.5 percent prevalence of the adult population estimated to be HIV-positive. There has been no significant change over the last five years and therefore Jamaica appears to have stabilized its HIV/AIDS epidemic.

With less than 1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV-positive, Egypt is a low-HIV-prevalence country. However, between the years 2006 and 2011, HIV prevalence rates in Egypt increased tenfold. Until 2011, the average number of new cases of HIV in Egypt was 400 per year, but in 2012 and 2013, it increased to about 600 new cases, and in 2014, it reached 880 new cases per year. According to 2016 statistics from UNAIDS, there are about 11,000 people currently living with HIV in Egypt. The Ministry of Health and Population reported in 2020 over 13,000 Egyptians are living with HIV/AIDS. However, unsafe behaviors among most-at-risk populations and limited condom usage among the general population place Egypt at risk of a broader epidemic.

With 1.28 percent of the adult population estimated by UNAIDS to be HIV-positive in 2006, Papua New Guinea has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in the Asia-Pacific subregion. Although this new prevalence rate is significantly lower than the 2005 UNAIDS estimate of 1.8 percent, it is considered to reflect improvements in surveillance rather than a shrinking epidemic. Papua New Guinea accounts for 70 percent of the subregion's HIV cases and is the fourth country after Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma to be classified as having a generalized HIV epidemic.

Vietnam faces a concentrated HIV epidemic among high-risk groups, including sex workers, and intravenous drug users. There are cases of HIV/AIDS in all provinces of Vietnam, though low testing rates make it difficult to estimate how prevalent the disease is. The known rates among high-risk groups are high enough that there is a risk of HIV/AIDS rates increasing among the general population as well. People who are HIV+ face intense discrimination in Vietnam, which does not offer legal protections to those living with the condition. Stigma, along with limited funding and human research, make the epidemic difficult to control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV-affected community</span> Medical condition

The affected community is composed of people who are living with HIV and AIDS, plus individuals whose lives are directly influenced by HIV infection. This originally was defined as young to middle aged adults who associate with being gay or bisexual men, and or injection drug users. HIV-affected community is a community that is affected directly or indirectly affected by HIV. These communities are usually influenced by HIV and undertake risky behaviours that lead to a higher chance of HIV infection. To date HIV infection is still one of the leading cause of deaths around the world with an estimate of 36.8 million people diagnosed with HIV by the end of 2017, but there can particular communities that are more vulnerable to HIV infection, these communities include certain races, gender, minorities, and disadvantaged communities. One of the most common communities at risk is the gay community as it is commonly transmitted through unsafe sex. The main factor that contributes to HIV infection within the gay/bisexual community is that gay men do not use protection when performing anal sex or other sexual activities which can lead to a higher risk of HIV infections. Another community will be people diagnosed with mental health issues, such as depression is one of the most common related mental illnesses associated with HIV infection. HIV testing is an essential role in reducing HIV infection within communities as it can lead to prevention and treatment of HIV infections but also helps with early diagnosis of HIV. Educating young people in a community with the knowledge of HIV prevention will be able to help decrease the prevalence within the community. As education is an important source for development in many areas. Research has shown that people more at risk for HIV are part of disenfranchised and inner city populations as drug use and sexually transmitted diseases(STDs) are more prevalent. People with mental illnesses that inhibit making decisions or overlook sexual tendencies are especially at risk for contracting HIV.

Discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS or serophobia is the prejudice, fear, rejection, and stigmatization of people with HIV/AIDS. Marginalized, at-risk groups such as members of the LGBTQ+ community, intravenous drug users, and sex workers are most vulnerable to facing HIV/AIDS discrimination. The consequences of societal stigma against PLHIV are quite severe, as HIV/AIDS discrimination actively hinders access to HIV/AIDS screening and care around the world. Moreover, these negative stigmas become used against members of the LGBTQ+ community in the form of stereotypes held by physicians.

HIV in pregnancy is the presence of an HIV/AIDS infection in a woman while she is pregnant. There is a risk of HIV transmission from mother to child in three primary situations: pregnancy, childbirth, and while breastfeeding. This topic is important because the risk of viral transmission can be significantly reduced with appropriate medical intervention, and without treatment HIV/AIDS can cause significant illness and death in both the mother and child. This is exemplified by data from The Centers for Disease Control (CDC): In the United States and Puerto Rico between the years of 2014–2017, where prenatal care is generally accessible, there were 10,257 infants in the United States and Puerto Rico who were exposed to a maternal HIV infection in utero who did not become infected and 244 exposed infants who did become infected.

Morocco has been identified as one of the best countries within the MENA region in dealing with the HIV epidemic based on their research capacities, surveillance systems, and evidence-informed and comprehensive responses. While the general public has a fairly low HIV prevalence, the majority of HIV/AIDS cases can be found in three high-risk groups, which is important when deciding how to approach intervention and prevention.

References

  1. ↑ "HIV and Language". POZ. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
  2. 1 2 "Global HIV & AIDS statistics — Fact sheet". UNAIDS. Archived from the original on 11 February 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  3. ↑ "HIV". WHO. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  4. ↑ "Greek Sex Workers Face Forced HIV Tests; Malawi Workers Fight Back - Ms. Magazine".
  5. ↑ Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspective Chapter 5
  6. ↑ Brown, Timothy (January 1, 2015). "I Am the Berlin Patient: A Personal Reflection". AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. 31 (1): 2–3. doi:10.1089/aid.2014.0224. PMC   4287108 . PMID   25328084.
  7. ↑ Rettner, Rachael (March 10, 2020). "UK man becomes second person cured of HIV after 30 months virus-free". Live Science. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Loreen Willenberg's HIV seems to have disappeared. Is this good news for the rest of us?". aidsmap.com. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  9. ↑ Mandavilli, Apoorva (2020-08-26). "A Woman May Have Been Cured of H.I.V. Without Medical Treatment". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  10. ↑ Jiang, Chenyang; Lian, Xiaodong; Gao, Ce; Sun, Xiaoming; Einkauf, Kevin B.; Chevalier, Joshua M.; Chen, Samantha M. Y.; Hua, Stephane; Rhee, Ben; Chang, Kaylee; Blackmer, Jane E. (26 August 2020). "Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1". Nature. 585 (7824): 261–267. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2651-8. ISSN   1476-4687. PMC   7837306 . PMID   32848246.
  11. ↑ "Rare case of woman's body ridding itself of HIV". BBC News. 2021-11-16. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  12. ↑ Turk, Gabriela; Seiger, Kyra; Lian, Xiaodong; Sun, Weiwei; Parsons, Elizabeth M.; Gao, Ce; Rassadkina, Yelizaveta; Polo, Maria Laura; Czernikier, Alejandro; Ghiglione, Yanina; Vellicce, Alejandra (2021-11-16). "A Possible Sterilizing Cure of HIV-1 Infection Without Stem Cell Transplantation". Annals of Internal Medicine. 175 (1): 95–100. doi:10.7326/l21-0297. ISSN   0003-4819. PMC   9215120 . PMID   34781719. S2CID   244131565.
  13. ↑ Iati, Marisa (November 16, 2021). "A woman's own body may have cured her of HIV, study finds". The Washington Post . Retrieved January 12, 2022.
  14. ↑ Venugopal G, Pillai A. "First ever needs assessment study by PLWHA to formulate a strategic intervention". Archived from the original on 2011-06-20.
  15. ↑ Understanding Positive Women's Realities(2006) Emma Bell and Luisa Orza
  16. ↑ Das, Aritra; Detels, Roger; Javanbakht, Marjan; Panda, Samiran (2017). "Living with HIV in West Bengal, India: perceptions of infected children and their caregivers". AIDS Care. 29 (6): 800–806. doi:10.1080/09540121.2016.1227059. PMC   5344765 . PMID   27608501.
  17. ↑ Gordon, Elana (December 20, 2013). "Two Decades Ago, Tom Hanks and 'Philadelphia' Prompted Changing Attitudes Toward HIV-AIDS". NBC Philadelphia. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
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